Heparanase, a highly important proteolytic enzyme, is important for macrophages to attack and eliminate tumors at mice. OR Heparanase turns on immune cells and cure cancer in mice. Instructor:

Cancer is a very common disease and one of the most common factors for morbidity in the western word. A lot of resources are invested all over the word to try and understand the disease mechanism and to find a cure for it. Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body (metastasis). During our life, many cells in our body obtain mutations that enable them to lose their normal characterization and to become tumorigenic. In most cases our immune system immediately identifies and eliminates those cells (antitumorigenic effect), and only if those cells manage to escape the immune system, tumor will form. Moreover, sometimes tumors manipulate the immune cells and make the immune cells act in a way that supports the tumors (pro-tumorigenic effect) and not eliminates them. Today, we came to realize that even if two distinct people have the same type of cancer, their body will react differently to treatment. Thus, each patient should get personal treatment that considers the exact state of his tumor.