RCS - Angle PLC - Rapid information on patient response to therapies

AngleAnnouncement

29/03/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 2925G  Angle PLC  29 March 2022

 For immediate release   29 March 2022

 

ANGLE plc ("the Company")

 

PARSORTIX SYSTEM SHOWS POTENTIAL FOR PROVIDING RAPID INFORMATION ON PATIENT
RESPONSE TO THERAPIES TARGETING METASTASIS

 

Existing chemotherapies, such as vinorelbine, may selectively target and
reduce the metastatic potential of CTCs

 

Detecting a reduction of microtentacles, that enable the spread of cancer, on
live CTCs indicates a positive response to therapy

 

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, is
pleased to announce that the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart
Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, has
published results of work undertaken in preclinical models of triple-negative
breast cancer (TNBC), showing that isolation of live circulating tumour cells
(CTCs) from a simple blood draw, using the Parsortix(®) system, can provide
rapid information on patient response to existing chemotherapy treatments that
can target metastasis more effectively than tumour growth.

 

The research team has previously demonstrated that breast cancer cells
circulating in the blood form unique microtentacles that enable the spread and
formation of tumours at secondary sites. Microtentacles are supported by
microtubules, which are the target for many FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs,
such as vinorelbine used in this study.

 

Using preclinical TNBC models, the researchers showed that vinorelbine
treatment increased the time taken for the cancer to spread from 8 to 30
weeks.  However, a 24-hour vinorelbine treatment had little effect on the
primary tumour development and survival, indicating selective targeting of the
metastatic potential of CTCs through microtubule disruption. The results of
this study indicate that CTCs demonstrate specific features which can be
leveraged to reveal the anti-metastatic capabilities of vinorelbine and
potentially other existing FDA-approved therapies.

 

In the US, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women with
287,000 new cases expected in 2022, accounting for 31% of all new cancer
cases. The American Cancer Society estimates that TNBC accounts for about
10-15% of all breast cancers. TNBC differs from other types of invasive breast
cancer in that it grows and spreads faster, has limited treatment choices, and
a worse prognosis. TNBC patients are recommended for chemotherapy treatments,
due to lack of targeted therapies, yet some pre-clinical studies have shown
that neoadjuvant chemotherapy can increase the risk of metastasis. There is an
urgent need to improve treatment options for patients with early stage TNBC
that can reduce the metastatic risk.

 

Prof Stuart Martin, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum
Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented:

"Cancer drugs that broadly disrupt microtubules have long proven effective at
reducing tumor growth and improving patient survival, but also have
significant toxicities that limit dosing. The focused treatment reported here
reduced microtentacles and metastasis at well below the maximum-tolerated
dose. If it is possible to use a focused treatment to reduce CTC metastasis,
the most likely opportunity for therapies to reduce CTC metastasis would be
combination therapy at the time of primary tumor treatment, helping to ensure
that CTCs shed by that primary tumor treatment have reduced metastatic
potential".

 

ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, added:

"We are pleased to report on the use of the Parsortix system for the isolation
of live CTCs in pre-clinical TNBC models, uncovering the potential to provide
rapid information on how a patient is responding to a therapy. ANGLE's ability
to provide actionable insight could help patients with limited treatment
options and could help to identify already approved drugs that could target
highly metastatic and hard-to-treat cancers, such as TNBC."

 

The research has been published as a peer-reviewed publication in the journal
Breast Cancer Research and is available online at
https://angleplc.com/library/publications/
(https://angleplc.com/library/publications/) .

 

 

For further information:

 

 ANGLE plc                                        +44 (0) 1483 343434
 Andrew Newland, Chief Executive

 Ian Griffiths, Finance Director

 Andrew Holder, Head of Investor Relations

 Berenberg (NOMAD and Joint Broker)

 Toby Flaux, Jen Clarke, Milo Bonser, Shiv Dave   +44 (0) 20 3207 7800

 Jefferies (Joint Broker)                         +44 (0) 20 7029 8000

 Max Jones, Thomas Bective

 FTI Consulting

 Simon Conway, Ciara Martin                       +44 (0) 203 727 1000

 Matthew Ventimiglia (US)                         +1 (212) 850 5624

 

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on
https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/
(https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/)

 

Notes for editors

 

About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com (http://www.angleplc.com)

ANGLE is a world leading liquid biopsy company with sample-to-answer
solutions. ANGLE's proven patent protected platforms include a circulating
tumor cell (CTC) harvesting technology and a downstream analysis system for
cost effective, highly multiplexed analysis of nucleic acids and proteins.

 

ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix(®) system, and
it enables a liquid biopsy (a simple blood test) to be used to provide the
cells of interest to the user in a format suitable for multiple types of
downstream analyses.  The system is based on a microfluidic device that
captures cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility.  The
system is epitope independent and can capture all types of CTCs as well as CTC
clusters in a viable form (alive).  CTCs enable the complete picture of a
cancer to be seen; as being an intact cell they allow DNA, RNA and protein
analysis and may provide comparable analysis to a tissue biopsy. Because CTC
analysis is a non-invasive process, unlike tissue biopsy, it can be repeated
as often as needed. This is important because cancer develops and changes over
time and there is a clear medical need for up-to-date information on the
status of a patient's tumor. In addition, the live CTCs harvested by the
Parsortix system can be cultured, which offers the potential for testing tumor
response to drugs outside the patient.

 

The Parsortix technology is the subject of 26 granted patents in Europe, the
United States, China, Australia, Canada, India, Japan and Mexico with three
extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide.

 

The Parsortix system has a CE Mark in Europe for the indicated use and, in the
United States, a De Novo Submission has been made to FDA for the Parsortix(®)
PC1 system seeking FDA clearance with Class II Classification for use with
metastatic breast cancer patients. FDA clearance is seen as the global
standard. ANGLE is seeking to be the first ever FDA cleared system for
harvesting CTCs for subsequent analysis.

 

ANGLE has also completed two separate 200 subject clinical studies under a
program designed to develop an ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test, with
the results showing best in class accuracy (AUC-ROC) of 95.1%. The pelvic mass
triage assay has undergone further refinement and optimisation and a 200
patient clinical verification study has now completed enrolment.

 

ANGLE's technology for the multiplex evaluation of proteins and nucleic acids
of all types is called the HyCEAD(TM) platform and is based on a patented flow
through array technology. It provides for low cost, highly multiplexed, rapid
and sensitive capture of targets from a wide variety of sample types. A
proprietary chemistry approach (the HyCEAD method) allows for the capture and
amplification of over 100 biomarkers simultaneously in a single reaction. The
HyCEAD system is extremely sensitive and is ideal for measuring gene
expression and other markers directly from Parsortix harvests and was used in
the ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test to achieve best in class accuracy
(AUC-ROC) of 95.1%.

 

ANGLE's proprietary technologies can be combined to provide automated,
sample-to-answer results in both centralised laboratory and point-of-use
cartridge formats.

 

ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres
and major corporates such as Abbott, Philips and QIAGEN, and works closely
with leading CTC translational research customers. These Key Opinion Leaders
(KOLs) are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear
benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that
utility in patient studies. The body of evidence as to the benefits of the
Parsortix system is growing rapidly from our own clinical studies in
metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer and also from KOLs with 58
peer-reviewed publications and numerous publicly available posters, available
on our website.

 

ANGLE has established clinical services laboratories in the UK and USA to
accelerate commercialisation of the Parsortix system and act as demonstrators
to support product development. The laboratories offer services to
pharmaceutical and biotech customers for use of Parsortix in cancer drug
trials and, once the laboratories are accredited and tests validated, will
provide Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) for patient management.

 

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