For immediate release |
9 September 2015 |
ANGLE plc ("the Company")
BREAST CANCER LIQUID BIOPSY RESULTS PRESENTED AT WORLD CDX CONFERENCE IN BOSTON
ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL and OTCQX: ANPCY), the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce that the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center will today present highly promising results from the first phase of its work with ANGLE's Parsortix system on a liquid biopsy for breast cancer.
Dr Julie E. Lang, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor of Surgery, specialising in breast cancer and notably in molecular profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer, will present results from USC's work with ANGLE's Parsortix system at today's World CDx Conference in Boston.
USC have compared the RNA molecular results of a liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system (simple blood test) with those from the biopsy of metastatic sites (the secondary cancer locations) in metastatic breast cancer patients.
The main findings from the first four patients are as follows:
1) In all of the patients analysed, the Parsortix system provided highly enriched CTCs suitable for rare cell amplification and RNA Seq analysis to detect relevant biomarkers and potentially discover novel biomarkers in breast cancer.
2) The CTCs for the Parsortix liquid biopsy had similar patterns of gene expression to the traditional biopsy of cancer cells from metastatic sites.
3) There was some degree of heterogeneity in the CTCs, which suggests they may provide additional clinical information beyond that found at a single metastatic site and may be representative of multiple metastatic sites.
Metastatic biopsies are invasive, often requiring surgery, and therefore can cause the patient considerable additional complications. Furthermore, such metastatic biopsies can be expensive and may delay aspects of the patient's ongoing treatment while they recover from surgery.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second most common overall. More than 1.7 million cases of breast cancer were recorded in 2012, accounting for around 12 per cent of all new cancer cases and 25 per cent in women (Source: World Cancer Research Fund International).
The Parsortix system offers the potential to replace the metastatic biopsy for breast cancer with a simple blood test that can be repeated as often as needed, thereby providing "real-time" information for therapy selection reflecting disease progression.
The next phase of the work will complete analysis for the remaining patient cohort and investigate the profiling of CTCs' biology sequentially over time to support treatment decisions in relation to HER2 directed therapy, chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy. Liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system may enable physicians to make more informed treatment decisions for women with breast cancer, ensuring that they are given therapies that will benefit them and not given therapies which will not. The Parsortix liquid biopsy may also identify novel treatment targets for new drugs in the future.
ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:
"USC's results with Parsortix in metastatic breast cancer are highly encouraging and suggest our liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system may have a role in enabling physicians to make more informed treatment decisions for women with breast cancer as well as identifying novel treatment targets for new drugs in the future. There is a significant need for simple and accurate diagnostics to support cancer therapy. We believe the Parsortix system offers a non-invasive medical approach that has the potential to transform the detection of cancer and significantly improve the treatment of cancer patients through precision medicine."
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 |
FTI Consulting Simon Conway, Mo Noonan, Stephanie Cuthbert Kimberly Ha (US) |
020 3727 1000 001 212 850 5612 |
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 granted patents in the United States, China and Australia and three extensive families of patents are 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 United States.
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 global 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 is strongly focused on establishing the use of the Parsortix system in clinical practice. To achieve this, ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres. These key opinion leaders are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that utility in patient studies. ANGLE believes this is the optimal approach for unlocking the multi-billion dollar worldwide market available to the Company and its potential strategic partners. 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.
ABOUT USC NORRIS COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER
USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has been leading the fight to make cancer a disease of the past. As one of the eight original comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, its mission is to treat and prevent cancer by advancing and integrating education, research, and personalized patient care. For 40 years, USC Norris has been revolutionizing cancer research with innovative surgical techniques and novel cancer treatments. The cancer center's breakthroughs and discoveries in the field of epigenetics have led the way to a greater understanding of the underlying causes of cancer and new methods of prevention, detection, and treatment. With a multidisciplinary team of more than 250 dedicated scientists and physicians, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center offers patients hope in the battle against cancer. Dr Julie Lang's research group will receive funding support from ANGLE.
