About the Investigator:

Born in Israel, Dr. Greenberger received her BA, MB, and MD degrees from the Hebrew University and her PhD in Human Genetics from the Sackler School of Medicine of Tel Aviv University.  She was a Dermatology Resident at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA.  She is currently an Attending Physician in the Department of Dermatology at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, a Senior Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University, and Director of the Pediatric Dermatology Service at Safra Children’s Hospital.

About the Research:

Advanced surgical techniques and radiation therapy have made it possible to very effectively treat tumors in the places where they arise.  Few individuals die of a tumor that has not spread (metastasized).  The spread of tumors, and treating them after they have spread, is the single-most-important problem to address, if we are to significantly ameliorate the suffering caused by cancer and decrease cancer-related death rates.

Most tumors spread by the tumor entering lymphatic vessels and being transported to sites distant from where the tumor arose.  Lymphatic vessels are thin tubes that run alongside blood vessels and carry lymphocytes, the most important of the immune cells.  These lymphatic vessels are lined by cells called endothelial cells that produce substances that have significant effects on the ability of tumor cells to enter the lymphatic vessels and also affect the ability of lymphocytes to mediate an effective immune response against the tumor.

This proposal will identify the substances produced by lymphatic vessels that mediate these key biological activities; namely, the entry of tumor cells into lymphatic vessels to initiate metastasis and the immune response of the body to the tumor.  Being able to identify and understand these substances holds promise for the development of novel treatments that will target these interactions and increase the efficacy of current anti-cancer drugs.