Similar to Wang et al. 2022b findings in thyroid cancer, our study reveals that besides expressing typical M2 markers, TAMs also exhibit elevated levels of several cathepsin proteases (CTSD, CTSL, and CTSB), further underscoring the potential association of these M2-like macrophages with tumor invasion, migration, and their relevance to targeted therapies. Here, CTSL is linked to neoplasm.