Zvi Fridlender, MD, MSc

About the Investigator:

Prof. Zvi Fridlender’s research focuses on understanding the role of an important cell of the immune system called neutrophil, in tumor growth and development. He is an active Physician-Scientist that received his MD and MSc in developmental biology from the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University, and further trained in Internal Medicine and Pulmonology. After postdoctoral research training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, he returned to Hadassah Medical Center where he is now a full Professor of Medicine, Heading a department of Internal Medicine and the Laboratory of Lung cancer Research.  Prof. Fridlender is currently president of the Israel Society of Pulmonary Medicine.

About the Research:

We are investigating for many years the role of neutrophils, a sub population of the white immune system cells, in the development of cancer and its progression locally and to metastases. Novel discoveries by us and others show that neutrophils, potentially programmed to fight and remove cancer cells, are “re-educated” by the tumor to support tumor development. We have investigated this process and working on ways to interfere with it. The overall aim of our research is to evaluate mechanisms by which neutrophils affect the initiation, progression and metastatic process of malignancies.

In the past decade a new activity of neutrophils called Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) was discovered, in which neutrophils shed a complex of DNA and proteins. Although its main purpose is against infections, studies by us and others show these NETs have also an important role in cancer, mostly advancing the metastatic process. We found that these NETs are in general more secreted in cancer, however the amount of “NETs per cell” is reduced in neutrophils from lung cancer patients compared to healthy individuals. We plan to investigate the mechanisms of this apparent contradiction, and study what enhances more neutrophils in cancer to secrete NETs but in a lesser amount. In addition, we found different effects of NETs on the tumor microenvironment (TME), including direct effects on tumor cells’ survival, migration and invasion, as well as effects on the immune cells in the TME, mainly activation and proliferation of T-cells. We plan to study the specific mechanisms of these effects, with future intensions to enhance or inhibit them as needed. We believe that the outcomes of this research project will provide an important understanding on the contributions of neutrophils to cancer development and progression, as well as to the metastatic process, and eventually we expect it to assist in suggesting new avenues to fight cancer through the immune system.