Angle upbeat on new research from Duesseldorf

Liquid biopsy company Angle announced the publication of research by Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf on Monday, which reportedly demonstrated the measurement of key proteins in breast cancer using Parsortix, which may advise therapy decisions in breast cancer treatment.

The AIM-traded firm said Duesseldorf showed in their study of 47 metastatic breast cancer patients that the ‘Parsortix’ system harvested clinically relevant cancer cells for analysis that other systems missed, and confirmed that by demonstrating that Parsortix could harvest such cells from the waste product of the leading antibody-based system.

Duesseldorf established protocols combining Parsortix with the downstream CellCelector micromanipulator to enable the individual processing of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) as single cells so that the heterogeneity of the patient's cancer could be investigated.

The downstream analysis included Sanger sequencing investigating the presence or absence of PIK3CA, the board said, which is “one of the most frequently” mutated genes in invasive breast cancer which conferred “remarkable” selective growth gain to the cell.

In the publication, the researchers stated that the mutational analysis of the PIK3CA within EpCAM low/negative CTCs could allow personalised HER2-targeted therapies.

“These results published in a leading peer-reviewed journal are further demonstration of the key advantages of the Parsortix system,” said Angle’s founder and chief executive Andrew Newland.

“Our strategy of getting the Parsortix system widely used in leading cancer research centres is working well with customers driving growth in the body of evidence behind Parsortix.”

Angle said Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf is one of its customers, and its research work was independent of the company.