For immediate release |
20 April 2015 |
ANGLE plc ("the Company")
RESULTS FROM THE SIDNEY KIMMEL CANCER CENTER AT THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY
ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce that the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, one of its key opinion leaders, has published results of its work evaluating the potential for ANGLE's Parsortix system to be used in single cell analysis for breast cancer.
The results are being published as a poster at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015 being held in Philadelphia ("AACR"). AACR is one of the world's largest and most influential cancer conferences. The poster can be downloaded from the ANGLE website here http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/download-files/.
A key challenge in investigating the metastatic process and improving the therapeutic benefit of cancer treatment is the heterogeneity (genetic variability) of the cancer cells. There are major potential benefits if circulating tumour cells (CTCs) can be harvested from patient blood and then processed individually one-by-one as intact cells for analysis. Technically this requires a high performance CTC capture and harvesting system that provides harvested CTCs in a form capable of then being processed by a single cell analysis system.
The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University have successfully tested the Parsortix system in combination with the single cell analysis DEPArray system to isolate single cancer cells from blood samples spiked with cultured breast cancer cells. The team proved the ability to manipulate the individual cancer cells from the Parsortix system and to correctly identify two breast cancer related genes (Estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) and p53) on the cells using standard PCR analysis techniques.
The research collaboration was led by Dr Massimo Cristofanilli, an internationally renowned breast cancer researcher and clinician, and Director of the Jefferson Breast Care Center at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals. Dr Cristofanilli has been an acknowledged leader in the CTC field since 2004, when his study on CTCs was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The work will now focus on molecular analysis in specified disease status and treatment settings to better identify clinical applications for more effective treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer.
Dr Massimo Cristofanilli, Director of the Jefferson Breast Care Center at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals, commented:
"We demonstrated that using the Parsortix system in conjunction with DEPArray we are able to isolate single, uncontaminated tumor cells to achieve single cell molecular analysis. The use of single cells is emerging as a powerful approach to molecular analysis in oncology. The Parsortix system has the ability to advance molecular testing, study cancer heterogeneity and apply concepts of precision medicine to breast cancer patients' care."
ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:
"The ability to capture and harvest individual CTCs for routine analysis is an important step that has proved extremely difficult until now. Our aim is that the Parsortix system will provide a simple and effective way to harvest CTCs for mutation, gene expression and other types of molecular analysis so that there is a way to determine which drugs may benefit individual patients."
For further information:
ANGLE plc |
01483 685830 |
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director |
|
Cenkos Securities Stephen Keys, Dr Christopher Golden (Nominated adviser) Russell Kerr, Olly Baxendale (Sales) |
020 7397 8900 |
Buchanan Mark Court, Sophie Cowles, Jane Glover |
020 7466 5000 |
For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/glossary/
Notes for editors
About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com
ANGLE is a specialist medtech company commercialising a disruptive platform technology that can capture cells circulating in blood, such as cancer cells, even when they are as rare in number as one cell in one billion blood cells, and harvest the cells for analysis.
ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix system and it enables a liquid biopsy (simple blood test) to be used to provide the cells of interest. Parsortix is the subject of two granted US patents and three extensive families of patents being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. The Parsortix system is established with strong positive evaluations from leading cancer research centres and is working with these cancer centres to demonstrate key applications. Parsortix has a CE Mark for Europe and FDA authorisation is in process for the US.
The analysis of the cells that can be harvested from patient blood with ANGLE's Parsortix system has the potential to help deliver personalised cancer care offering profound improvements in clinical and health economic outcomes in the treatment and diagnosis of various forms of cancer.
The increase in cancer to a 1 in 3 lifetime incidence is set to drive a multi $billion clinical market. The Parsortix system is designed to be compatible with existing major medtech analytical platforms and to act as a companion diagnostic for major pharma in helping to identify patients that will benefit from a particular drug and then monitoring the drug's effectiveness.
Now that the Parsortix system has been developed, ANGLE is focused on its commercialisation in the market.
ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres and is working with these cancer centres to demonstrate key applications for its Parsortix non-invasive cancer diagnostic system as a liquid biopsy. Details are available here http://www.angleplc.com/the-company/collaborators/
As well as cancer, the Parsortix technology has the potential for deployment with several other important cell types in the future.
ANGLE began trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in March 2004 under the ticker symbol AGL. For further information please visit: www.angleplc.com.
