Parsortix harvests cancer cells from bone marrow

RNS Number : 2654U

Angle PLC

23 October 2017

 

For immediate release

23 October 2017

ANGLE plc ("the Company")

 RESEARCHERS DEVELOP PARSORTIX^TM-BASED PROCESS TO EFFICIENTLY HARVEST CANCER CELLS FROM BONE MARROW

Reactivation of such dormant cells has been implicated in patients with cancer relapse

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, today announces that the Center for Women's Health Tuebingen, Germany, has presented the first report on a successful establishment of a protocol for detecting disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) using cancer patient bone marrow with the Parsortix^TM system.

The reactivation of dormant DTCs and their release into the bloodstream as circulating tumour cells (CTCs), is the process by which a patient may, sometimes after many years of remission, suffer a relapse through metastasis. There is intense interest in the existence and status of such DTCs that are "hibernating" in the bone marrow.

At present, the method of choice for detecting DTCs is a density gradient centrifugation of the bone marrow to enrich for mononuclear cells and then an antibody-based staining for various cell markers.  In experiments with spiked cancer cells this procedure was shown to be accompanied by a tremendous reduction of target cells with an average of up to 80% cell loss. This may well be one reason why, in primary breast cancer, DTCs have been found in the bone marrow of only 20-30% of patients.

The Tuebingen researchers have shown that their newly established Parsortix^TM based protocol allows a recovery of about 80% of input target cells. Furthermore, the Tuebingen team believe that this easy to use method may well be applicable to other (non-blood) body fluids for detection of tumor cells for liquid biopsies.

The University Hospital Tuebingen research results were presented in a poster at Europe's leading CTC conference, the Third International Advances in Circulating Tumour Cells (ACTC) Symposium. A copy of the poster is available at https://angleplc.com/library/publications/.  

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

"The presence of disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) in bone marrow has been shown in multiple studies to be predictive of clinical relapse. The research from the Center for Women's Health in Tuebingen demonstrates the utility of Parsortix^TM in harvesting disseminated cancer cells from bone marrow, extending the potential applications of our liquid biopsy system significantly."

Dr. André Koch, Center for Women's Health, Tuebingen commented:

"The Parsortix^TM system shows huge promise in improving the efficiency of isolating DTCs from bone marrow. At our Women's Hospital, taking bone marrow is routine during surgery on breast cancer patients, so improvements to processing and then analysis of the bone marrow are particularly valuable. We are excited about the opportunities this opens up."

For further information ANGLE:

ANGLE plc	[phone]
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
finnCap Ltd (NOMAD and Joint Broker) Corporate Finance - Adrian Hargrave, Simon Hicks, Kate Bannatyne Corporate Broking - Alice Lane, Nikita Jain	[phone]
WG Partners (Joint Broker) Nigel Barnes Nigel Birks	[phone] [phone]
FTI Consulting Simon Conway, Mo Noonan, Stephanie Cuthbert Kimberly Ha (US)	[phone] [phone]

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/glossary/

This announcement contains inside information.

Notes for editors

About ANGLE plc     www.angleplc.com 

ANGLE is a world-leading liquid biopsy 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^TM 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 Europe, the United States, Canada, India, China, Japan and Australia and three extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures live cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. The Parsortix^TM system has a CE Mark for Europe and FDA authorisation is in process for the United States. 

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.  Details are available here http://www.angleplc.com/the-company/collaborators/ 

The analysis of the cells that can be harvested from patient blood with ANGLE's Parsortix^TM 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 dollar clinical market. The Parsortix^TM 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.

As well as cancer, the Parsortix^TM technology has the potential for deployment with several other important cell types in the future.

ANGLE stock trades on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol AGL and in New York on the OTC-QX under the ticker symbol ANPCY. For further information please visit: www.angleplc.com

 

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