Angle upbeat on latest Parsortix study

The AIM-traded firm described Zeillinger as a “key opinion leader” in the field of liquid biopsies use in oncology.

It said Zeillinger's group developed and tested protocols to allow the molecular characterisation of the circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and residual blood cells harvested by the Parsortix system, without the need to separate out the CTCs.

That was said to have been possible as the Parsortix system provides high purity cells with “very efficient” removal of white blood cells.

With alternative approaches for CTC enrichment such as density gradient centrifugation, that had not been possible, according to the Angle board, as high levels of contaminating white blood cells remained with the CTCs captured.

The Medical University of Vienna had identified specific genes which were expressed preferentially on CTCs earlier and, evaluating a panel of such genes, were able to get positive results in 95% of primary - that is, localised disease that had not spread - gynaecological cancer patient samples, 100% of recurrent gynaecological cancer patient samples and 92% metastatic breast cancer patient samples.

Angle said the workflow established by Zeillinger's group provided the opportunity for use in detection of cancer, as well as the molecular characterisation of CTCs for the purpose of assessing which drugs could be most effective for a patient during their disease progression.

“In the study we have demonstrated that Angle’s Parsortix system addresses key limitations of other approaches for CTC liquid biopsy through the combination of its sensitivity in isolating circulating cancer cells in blood and the high purity of the harvested cells enabling their direct molecular analysis,” Professor Robert Zeillinger explained.

Angle founder and chief executive Andrew Newland added that the published study further demonstrated that the Parsortix system outperformed other approaches for harvesting circulating tumour cells from the blood of cancer patients, in the “fast emerging” liquid biopsy market.

“The capability to harvest cancer cells with high purity to allow direct molecular analysis of the cells strongly differentiates our system, which should facilitate adoption in clinical practice,” Newland said.