Cancer Research Manchester Institute Publication

RNS Number : 7342Z

Angle PLC

15 December 2014

 



For immediate release

15 December 2014

ANGLE plc

("ANGLE" or "the Company")

CANCER RESEARCH UK MANCHESTER INSTITUTE PUBLICATION  

ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL OTCQX: ANPCY), the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce that Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute has published results from its work with the Parsortix system.    

Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (CRUK MI), formerly known as the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, submitted a poster presentation at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) conference held in November 2014.  Following review, this has now been released publicly under CRUK's branding and is available on ANGLE's website via the following link www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/download-files/ 

Key points in the publication include:

·     The capture efficiency of the Parsortix system is comparable to that of CellSearch when using spiked samples best suited for their system⁽¹⁾;  

·     The Parsortix system does not require the use of capture antibodies so "it facilitates capture of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) with weak cell marker expression or cells lacking the targeted epitope e.g. mesenchymal cells"; 

·     The Parsortix system is "straight-forward to use with minimal user intervention";

·     CRUK MI's optimised protocol can reduce the number of white blood cells captured by the Parsortix system to below 200 providing a high level of sample purity and this is independent of the volume of blood processed;

·     Output from the Parsortix system is of sufficient purity that it provides "an ideal starting point for both single cell isolation and batch molecular analysis".  It does not need further processing steps and thus offers a cost effective route to analysis.

Ged Brady, Deputy and Genomics Leader within the Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology  group at Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute commented:

"We see great promise in the application of the Parsortix technology for harvesting CTCs for molecular analysis to enable personalised cancer care.  We have now selected the Parsortix system to undertake pilot studies in both colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer." 

ANGLE's Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

"We believe the published results from CRUK MI's work will be very helpful in developing commercial relationships to get the Parsortix system adopted in the marketplace." 

(1)  The CellSearch system is the only FDA approved circulating tumour cell system.  It is approved for CTC enumeration only, for a limited number of cancers and not for CTC harvesting for analysis.  The CellSearch system captures cells based on their expression of the cell surface marker EpCAM.  The cultured cells used for the spiking tests were selected to have a uniformly high EpCAM expression in order to ensure the effectiveness of the CellSearch system.  In contrast, circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in patient blood have varying expressions of EpCAM. Certain types of CTCs, such as mesenchymal, have little or no EpCAM expression and certain cancer types, such as ovarian cancer, have very low levels of EpCAM expression.

For further information:

ANGLE plc	01483 685830
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
Cenkos Securities Stephen Keys, Dr Christopher Golden (Nominated adviser) Andy Roberts, Christian Hobart (Sales)	020 7397 8900
Buchanan Mark Court, Sophie Cowles	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.

 

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