Download Blood Biopsy

Contacts:
Angle PLC
Peggy Robinson
Vice President
(914) 525-5928
Media Contact
Brandwidth Solutions LLC
Debra Harrsch
(267) 577-0806
[email protected]
Medical University of Vienna Research Demonstrates Value of ANGLE plc’s ‘Blood Biopsy’
Technology
Poster presentation at AACR April 21 shows Parsortix™ system in capturing and analyzing mRNA of
circulating tumor cells for ovarian and breast cancer
PHILADELPHIA – ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a UK-based medical diagnostics company with
pioneering products for cancer diagnostics and fetal health, announce a poster presentation by
researchers from the Medical University of Vienna detailing the utility of its lead product, the Parsortix
cell separation system, in the detection of ovarian and breast cancer. The poster will be presented at
the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting April 18-22.
The research team, led by Prof. Robert Zeillinger, Head of the Molecular Oncology Group and Dr. Eva
Obermayr, Principal Investigator, both from the Medical University of Vienna, sought to develop a
protocol that combined the novel microfluidic Parsortix technology with qPCR to enable the molecular
analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) implicated in ovarian and breast cancer. In their research
using this approach, Obermayr, Zeillinger et al achieved significantly higher ovarian cancer detection
rates (80 percent and 78 percent, versus 24 percent for other CTC approaches) when screening
against a proprietary 7-gene panel. For the detection of breast cancer, the researchers also
demonstrated an improved detection rate – finding as high as 71 percent mRNA-positive patients
versus 40 percent for the standard CTC diagnostic approach, which relies on the expression of
epithelial markers.
Subsequently, the system was optimized with the addition of a further 23 RNA markers. In the initial
subset of study samples so far analyzed, this approach identified an increased level of 92% across all
the cancer types with 100% of the ovarian cancer patients correctly identified while maintaining 100%
specificity. Larger sample sizes will be needed to confirm these optimized results.
“The Parsortix technology contributes to the unprecedented specificity of the overall approach, by
providing a high purity CTC sample. Parsortix is a label-free technology, and as such may become the
gold standard for ovarian cancer diagnosis,” said Obermayr. “By combining the Parsortix technology
with qPCR analysis, we achieved an unprecedented high detection rate of cancer, even in early stage
patients, when conventional diagnostic methods failed.”
The Medical University of Vienna is now progressing into a multi-center prospective clinical study in
ovarian cancer, which is expected to take around 18 months to complete. ANGLE is supporting this
ANGLE
/
p2
effort as a top priority. The Parsortix system, together with the RNA marker panel, has the potential to
help inform clinical decision-making for ovarian cancer patients in:
•
•
•
Detection of cancer in high risk or genetically pre-disposed patients (detection)
Monitoring therapy and selection of therapies in treatment of ovarian cancer patients
(therapy monitoring)
Monitoring of ovarian cancer patients in remission for early detection of relapse
(remission monitoring)
Following the early results of the ovarian cancer research from the Medical University of Vienna, the
Company raised £8.8 million ($13.1 million USD) in February through a placing of additional shares
and offer of new shares to existing stockholders. The money raised will be used to drive the
commercialization of an ovarian cancer diagnostic on the Parsortix platform.
“The prospect of a simple blood test for cancer with high sensitivity and specificity is unheard of in the
medical field,” said ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland. “The very strong
substantiation of the Parsortix system coming so soon after our fundraising is very welcome. We
continue to focus all our efforts to get this system into the market to the benefit of patients.”
While initial commercial development of the Parsortix system is focused on ovarian cancer, the
technology is broadly applicable across all forms of solid tumor cancer – as well as other diseases –
that require the capture and isolation of specific cells from a blood sample to aid in analysis for
diagnosis. A second poster from researchers at Thomas Jefferson University that will also be
presented at AACR reports on the capability of Parsortix system to aid in the effective isolation of
single CTCs, allowing for downstream molecular analysis of a highly enriched population of single
cells, irrespective of expression technique.
“It is now clear that the Parsortix system has wide application not just in ovarian cancer but in breast
cancer and other gynecological cancers as well,” noted Zeillinger. “We are delighted to be working
with ANGLE to bring this new capability to our patients as soon as possible.”
About ANGLE plc
ANGLE is a UK-based specialist medtech company commercializing the Parsortix system, a cell
separation technology that enables a simple blood test to capture targeted cells for investigation, such
as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for molecular profiling and analysis. Parsortix can help deliver
targeted cancer diagnostics that has the potential to inform personalized treatment of cancer. It is
also 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. ANGLE has established formal
collaborations with world-class cancer centers and is working with these cancer centers to
demonstrate key applications for its Parsortix non-invasive cancer diagnostic system as a liquid biopsy.
In addition to cancer cells, the Parsortix technology has the potential for deployment for other
clinically significant cell types in the future.
ANGLE
/
p3
ANGLE is a public company trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker
symbol AGL and on the OTCQX market in the US under the ticker symbol ANPCY. For more
information, www.angleplc.com
########