Importantly, the aforementioned epidemiological observations are backed by the experimental data demonstrating accelerated tumor growth/increased invasiveness in PDAC cells engineered to over-express heparanase (13, 15, 26), as well as a reduction of primary tumor progression/metastasis in murine models of PDAC following administration of heparanase-inhibiting compounds (25, 74). Here, HPSE is linked to neoplasm.