Based on the median value, a higher abundance of N1 TANs (≥10% of the area) was associated with better disease-free survival in NSCLC patients (Fig. 1G and Supplementary Data 1), whereas a lower N1/N2 or N1/p-SMAD3+ TAN ratio was associated with disease progression (Supplementary Fig. 1C, D). Here, SMAD3 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.