Parsortix Colorectal Cancer Validation

RNS Number : 7804I

Angle PLC

08 July 2013

 



For immediate release

8 July 2013

ANGLE plc

("ANGLE" or "the Company")

PARSORTIX COLORECTAL CANCER PATIENT BLOOD VALIDATION     

ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL), the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce successful results from third party testing of its Parsortix non-invasive cancer diagnostic product on colorectal cancer patient blood.

The Parsortix system comprising the PR1 machine and the GEN3 cassette was tested on cancer patient blood by the University of Surrey Oncology Group (Surrey) and has been found to be performing well.

Surrey researchers first undertook a wide range of testing on controlled spiked samples (cultured cancer cells added to healthy volunteer blood) with a variety of different types of cancer.  This testing enabled them to compare capture and harvesting of cells against known numbers of spiked cells and was completed successfully as a pre-cursor to testing the blood of cancer patients.  Surrey also developed and refined formal cell identification techniques with the Parsortix system.

Following a number of successful separations of the blood of patients with a variety of different cancers, Surrey has completed a structured analysis of colorectal cancer patient blood undertaken by a hepatopancreobiliary surgeon from the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Cells from 2ml samples of whole blood from 20 colorectal cancer patients were separated and harvested using the Parsortix system. The harvested cells were investigated by Surrey to identify and count the CTCs (circulating tumour cells) in the patients' blood.

Of the 20 patients tested, 75% were found positive for CTCs.  This is an impressive result as it is more than double the level recorded in the published literature*, which suggests that a positive CTC count (defined as 2 or more CTCs in 7.5ml of blood) will be found in less than half this number of patients.  The effectiveness of the Parsortix cell harvest is even more pronounced as only 2ml of blood was used, less than one third of the sample volume used in the published studies.

Surrey has subsequently demonstrated that, through the use of the simple and established Ficoll gradient process as a pre-separation enrichment step, the Parsortix system is capable of running much larger blood volumes fast and effectively through the system without reducing the capture and harvest capabilities of the system. 

Using this approach, a 20ml patient blood sample can now be processed through the Parsortix system in under an hour.

Given the scale and severity of colorectal cancer, it is a major target for the Parsortix system.  More than 1.2 million people develop colorectal cancer every year globally, and more than 600,000 people die of the disease. 

Head of the University of Surrey's Oncology Group in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Professor Hardev Pandha, commented:

"The Parsortix system is working well. It is simple to use and is proving highly sensitive in its ability to harvest circulating tumour cells from patient blood.  The cells are harvested without antibody capture so there is huge potential as a liquid biopsy." 

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

"We are delighted that the University of Surrey's independent validation of the Parsortix system has shown it to be working well and believe that the Parsortix liquid biopsy has the potential to make a major contribution to more effective treatment of cancer patients.

"The University's success in using the Ficoll gradient with the Parsortix system is important as the ability to process larger blood volumes increases the sensitivity of the system further differentiating Parsortix from the competition."

*Allard WJ, Matera J, Miller MC et al. Clin Cancer Res 2004; 10: 6897-6904 found 30% of colorectal cancer patients positive for CTCs and Sastre J, Maestro ML, Puente J et al. Annals of Oncology 19: 935-938, 2008 found 36.2% colorectal cancer patients positive for CTCs.

For further information:

ANGLE plc	01483 685830
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
Cenkos Securities Adrian Hargrave, Stephen Keys (Nominated adviser) Andy Roberts, Christian Hobart (Sales)	020 7397 8900
Buchanan Mark Court, Fiona Henson, Sophie Cowles	020 7466 5000

 

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