Prostrate cancer study published PLOS ONE Journal

RNS Number : 0306A

Angle PLC

24 September 2015

 



For immediate release

24 September 2015

ANGLE plc

("ANGLE" or "the Company")

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATION ON THE USE OF PARSORTIX SYSTEM WITH PROSTATE CANCER PATIENTS

Potential for a simple blood test (liquid biopsy) for personalised medicine in prostate cancer

ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL OTCQX: ANPCY), the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce that Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) has published its work in prostate cancer patients using ANGLE's Parsortix system in the PLOS ONE Journal a peer-reviewed, open-access resource from the Public Library of Science.

The publication is available at http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/download-files/

Key findings in the publication are that:

·     Using the Parsortix system, BCI researchers were able to successfully harvest cancer cells from 100% of the patients for analysis. 

·     The Parsortix system harvested a range of different circulating cells comprising not only epithelial cells, which can be captured by antibody-based systems, but also mesenchymal cells and cell clusters. 

·     The purity of the cells harvested by the Parsortix system was three times higher than the best antibody-based system studied.

·     The cells harvested by the Parsortix system are clinically relevant and offer the potential for the Parsortix system to be used to provide a repeatable, non-invasive liquid biopsy for prostate cancer patients.

·     The cells harvested by the Parsortix system are viable and it is possible to culture the cells, growing the cancer outside the patient.

·     Compared to traditional antibody-based systems, the Parsortix system is quicker, easier to use, does not use expensive reagents, captures a wider range of clinically relevant cells and avoids the problems in downstream analysis caused by contaminating magnetic beads.

·     Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) captured by the Parsortix system hold much more genetic/molecular information than cell-free DNA.  Consequently CTC analysis has the potential to become the main diagnostic tool for real-time personalised treatment in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men and the fourth most common overall. More than 1.1 million cases of prostate cancer were recorded in 2012, accounting for around 8 per cent of all new cancer cases and 15 per cent in men (Source: World Cancer Research Fund International).

Dr Yong-Jie Lu, Reader in Medical Oncology at Barts Cancer Institute, commented:

"Understanding how molecular alterations in cancer cells change and evolve during cancer progression and in response to therapeutics is vital to better understanding cancer progression and improving how we care for patients with metastatic disease.  The easy to use, epitope-independent Parsortix system not only captures CTCs of all different phenotypes from cancer patients but it allows their easy harvesting for downstream analysis. Furthermore the cells are undamaged and we have shown them to be viable for cell culture."

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:

"This is the first peer-reviewed publication in a scientific journal in relation to the clinical use of ANGLE's Parsortix system.  It adds to the growing body of published evidence of the system's performance as a liquid biopsy in a range of cancers including ovarian, prostate and breast cancers.  The prospect of deployment of our repeatable, non-invasive liquid biopsy in the treatment of prostate cancer patients is exciting."

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 Kimberley 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 Barts Cancer Institute   http://www.bci.qmul.ac.uk/about-us 

Barts Cancer Institute is part of the Barts Cancer Research UK Centre of Excellence and one of the top five cancer research centres in the UK.

Barts Cancer Institute, within the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, was recently placed in the top ten medical schools in the UK and world-wide.

Located in the Centre of London in Charterhouse Square - 1 of 3 Queen Mary University of London campuses - over 40 research groups across Barts Cancer Institute's six specialist Centres create world-class outputs in research, clinical trials and teaching.

 

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