These results revealed that pyroptosis (hazard ratio [HR] : 1.541 × 10 (− 2); 95% CI 5.221 × 10 (− 4) − 5.101 × 10 (− 1); p < 0.05), complement (HR: 1.792 × 10 (− 2); 95% CI 5.077 × 10 (− 4) − 6.667 × 10 (− 1); p < 0.05), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling (HR: 1.952 × 10 (− 2); 95% CI 9.136 × 10 (− 4) − 4.077 × 10 (− 1); p < 0.05) were strongly related to a favorable overall survival (OS) of the melanoma patients (Fig. 1A; Supplementary Table S2). Here, TNF is linked to melanoma.