TNF and thyroid cancer: This is because on the one hand, it could secrete histamine, CXCL1/GRO-α and CXCL10/IP-10 to promote the proliferation of thyroid cancer cells (Petty and Yang, 2017), and on the other hand, it could initiate EMT by secreting TNF, IL-6 and CXCL8/IL-8, which were essential in EMT process (Visciano et al., 2015).