In breast cancer, PEBP4 silencing can promote tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced apoptosis by activating mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade (Wang et al., 2005), and suppress proliferation and invasion by repressing phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway (Wang et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene TNF and breast cancer.