ANGLE plc ("the Company")

PARSORTIX SYSTEM AND ASSAYS BEING SHOWCASED AT A LEADING EUROPEAN BREAST CANCER CONFERENCE

ANGLE presenting two posters highlighting the utility of the Company's new Portrait+ CTC Staining Kit and Portrait HER2 assay

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovative circulating tumour cell (CTC) solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical oncology, is pleased to announce its participation at the 14^th European Breast Cancer  Conference (EBCC) being held in Milan, Italy on 20 to 22 March 2024.

EBCC is focused on multidisciplinary, high-quality clinical and translational research, with an emphasis on innovation and technology in the management of breast cancer. The conference is attended by researchers, physicians, patient advocates and industry representatives providing sales, partnership and collaboration opportunities.

ANGLE is presenting two posters at the conference:

1.  Integrating isolation using label-independent microfluidics and advanced staining for comprehensive Circulating Tumour Cell Analysis

ANGLE's Parsortix^® system and Portrait^®+ CTC Staining Kit together provide an optimised, efficient, and standardised solution for the harvest and characterisation, via immunofluorescence (IF) staining, of a diverse range of CTC phenotypes. In the presented data, half of the CTC-positive breast cancer patient blood samples contained only mesenchymal CTCs, while half had a combination of both epithelial and mesenchymal CTCs. Patients with purely mesenchymal CTCs would have been missed by epitope-dependent systems. This is important because mesenchymal CTCs or CTCs undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition are clinically significant, playing a critical role in cancer progression, treatment resistance and metastasis.

CTC clusters harvested by the Parsortix system were observed in 75% of the CTC-positive patients which is crucial given that CTC clusters have been shown to have up to 100 times the increased metastatic potential compared to single CTCs. The Parsortix cassette's unique design is suited to capturing and harvesting clusters which is often difficult with other CTC systems. 

The study results highlight the importance of using ANGLE's Parsortix system combined with the Company's Portrait+ CTC Staining Kit, to enable the isolation and analysis of a range of CTC phenotypes and CTC clusters, both of which are important in cancer progression and metastasis.  

2.  Interrogating HER2 status in Circulating Tumour Cells isolated using the Parsortix^® system from Metastatic Breast Cancer patients

The diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is currently guided by the evaluation of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status in tissue biopsies. However, a tissue biopsy is invasive, is at a single point in time and, with little opportunity for repeat testing, can become out of date. The longitudinal monitoring of HER2 expression from blood is possible through minimally invasive CTC-based liquid biopsy techniques. ANGLE has developed an IF assay for HER2 protein identification on CTCs isolated and harvested using the Parsortix system from the peripheral blood of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients.

Results from an in-house study in 26 patients found that CTCs overexpressing HER2 were present at similar levels in patients that had HER2+ or HER2- tumours by primary tissue biopsy. HER2 status of CTCs was also dynamic, changing over time in 37% of CTC positive donors which is unsurprising given that temporal changes in HER2 tissue status are also well documented in the literature. One third-party study of 575 breast cancer patients similarly found that 38% had changed HER2 status from the original primary tissue biopsy to the metastatic tissue biopsy, at disease recurrence. These initial results using Parsortix-based harvest of CTCs demonstrate how the HER2 status between primary tumours and CTCs can diverge, and that analysis of HER2 expression on CTCs has the potential to help guide clinical decision making in MBC patients, allowing for regular monitoring and tracking of treatment and/or disease progression.

ANGLE Chief Scientific Officer, Karen Miller, commented:

"We are delighted to have had two posters presented at the EBCC conference. The results of these studies further demonstrate the potential utility of ANGLE's sample-to-answer Parsortix system and Portrait imaging assays for reliable and repeatable assessment of biomarkers in a range of solid tumours, including breast. We look forward to discussions with translational researchers and industry representatives at this conference to explore opportunities for sales, collaboration, and partnerships."

For further information:

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/

Notes for editors

About ANGLE plc

ANGLE is a world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovative circulating tumour cell (CTC) solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical oncology using a simple blood sample. ANGLE's FDA cleared and patent protected circulating tumour cell (CTC) harvesting technology known as the Parsortix^® PC1 System enables complete downstream analysis of the sample including whole cell imaging and proteomic analysis and full genomic and transcriptomic molecular analysis.

ANGLE's commercial businesses are focusing on diagnostic products and clinical services. Diagnostic products include the Parsortix^® system and associated consumables. The clinical services business is offered through ANGLE's GCP-compliant laboratories in the UK. Services include custom made assay development and clinical trial testing for pharma.

Over 90 peer-reviewed publications have demonstrated the performance of the Parsortix system. For more information, visit www.angleplc.com