TIDMAGL
RNS Number : 1286I
Angle PLC
15 June 2017
For immediate release 15 June 2017
ANGLE plc ("the Company")
PARSORTIX BREAKTHROUGH DELIVERS RARE BLOOD CELL DISCOVERY IN
PROSTATE CANCER
Barts Cancer Institute study finds rare type of cell in cancer
patient blood linked to survival
Use of Parsortix identifies patients that are 10 times more
likely to die of their disease early
ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy
company, is delighted to announce that researchers from Queen Mary
University of London's Barts Cancer Institute (BCI), using ANGLE's
Parsortix system, have found a rare cell, known as a megakaryocyte,
in the blood of prostate cancer patients and discovered that the
number of these cells in the blood correlates closely with
increased patient survival. This is the first time the presence of
these cells in the blood has been shown to be connected to cancer
prognosis.
The consequence of this finding is that, from a simple blood
test, the Parsortix system has been shown to be capable of
harvesting for analysis not only mesenchymal CTCs, which are linked
to a poor outcome, but also megakaryocytes, which are linked to a
favourable patient outcome. BCI researchers have shown in a 40
patient study that combining these two factors enables the
identification of patients, who are 10 times more likely to die of
their disease in the short term. This knowledge may enable targeted
treatment, potentially improving patient outcomes.
Investigation of megakaryocytes in patient blood opens up a
whole new area for cancer research and, at present, ANGLE's
patented Parsortix system is the only system that has been
demonstrated to be capable of harvesting megakaryocytes.
ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland,
commented:
"This is a key breakthrough for ANGLE's Parsortix system showing
further unique capabilities to harvest both rare megakaryocyte
cells and mesenchymal CTCs in patient blood that play an essential
role in the process of metastasis, which is responsible for over
90% of cancer deaths worldwide. The findings of this study are of
great medical potential, demonstrating an ability to identify
patients most at risk of aggressive prostate cancer and a higher
rate of mortality and consequently most in need of intensive
treatment."
Dr Yong-Jie Lu, Reader in Medical Oncology at Barts Cancer
Institute, commented:
"The discovery of the role of megakaryocytes in patient blood as
a favourable prognostic biomarker has the potential to open up new
avenues of research in the fight against cancer, not only in
prostate cancer, but potentially other cancers too. Parsortix has
shown the potential to detect more severe cancer cases where the
patient is likely to die sooner, with a simple blood test, thereby
providing information which may enable clinicians to provide
different treatment for their patients, potentially extending lives
of those battling with cancer."
The study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research
today is described in Queen Mary University of London's press
release, which is reproduced in full below.
Blood cell discovery identifies patients with aggressive
prostate cancer
Patients who have aggressive prostate cancer could be identified
by a highly accurate and simple blood test, according to an early
study by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
The research discovered rare cells in the blood that could be
used to identify patients who are 10 times more likely to die of
their prostate cancer, allowing targeted treatments to be offered
as early as possible.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Western men and the
fourth most common overall, with more than 1.1 million new cases
recorded in 2012. Identifying patients with aggressive cancer could
have major implications for their treatment; however, methods to
detect whether the cancer has spread (metastasis) are costly and
expose patients to radiation. A simple blood test that is accurate
and has the ability to predict earlier whether the prostate cancer
has become metastatic would meet a key unmet medical need.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research,
analysed blood samples from 81 prostate cancer patients using a new
cell capture technology called Parsortix(TM) developed by the
British company ANGLE plc. Unlike many other systems, the Parsortix
system captures all types of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) -
cancer cells that have left the original tumour and entered the
bloodstream prior to spreading around the body.
Metastasis is responsible for over 90 per cent of cancer-related
deaths. The researchers investigated various types of CTCs
including two that are involved in the metastasis process. The
number of 'EMTed' CTCs, which had previously not been possible to
capture by many other systems, was associated with poor patient
survival, while the presence of 'EMTing' CTCs was closely
correlated with whether the patient's cancer had become
metastatic.
Using the Parsortix system, the researchers also discovered the
presence of rare cells in the blood, known as 'megakaryocytes' -
large bone marrow cells which produce platelets for blood clotting.
Megakaryocytes have never before been linked to cancer prognosis,
but the presence of these cells was found to be strongly linked to
patient survival, with better outcomes for patients with greater
numbers of megakaryocytes.
Lead researcher Dr Yong-Jie Lu from QMUL's Barts Cancer
Institute said: "This work opens up a wide range of exciting
opportunities to benefit cancer patients. We have already started
to test more patient samples and will soon move on to wider
clinical trials to confirm the efficacy of the test. We are also
working to see if this test can be used on other types of
cancer."
The team found that combining the number of 'EMTing' CTCs with
the patient's 'Prostate-Specific Antigen' level (used in currently
available tests) gave the best predictor of metastasis (over 92 per
cent accuracy), significantly out-performing all current tests.
They also developed a combined scoring system, taking into
account the numbers of both 'EMTed' CTCs and megakaryocytes
harvested by the Parsortix system from a patient's blood. The
scoring system was developed with 40 patients who had their disease
monitored over a 20 month period, and was able to identify patients
who were 10 times more likely to die from their disease in the
short term.
Rebecca Porta, CEO of Orchid - Fighting Male Cancer, the main
funder of the study, added: "This is a very promising study for
patients and has the potential to significantly increase the
ability of clinicians to act earlier to treat those who are at a
higher risk of dying earlier from their cancer. Delivering more
appropriate treatment more quickly could help to save lives and
pro-long life expectancy."
Dr Catherine Pickworth, Cancer Research UK's science information
officer, said: "Cancers spreading to new areas of the body is the
main reason why people die from the disease. This study shows a
potential new way of helping to monitor this spread in men with
prostate cancer. It was able to predict which patients were likely
to fare better than others, based on the number of a rare type of
immune cell found in the blood. This may help doctors make
better-informed treatment decisions based on the extra information,
and ultimately improve survival."
The research was funded by Orchid - Fight Male Cancer, Cancer
Research UK and ANGLE plc, developers of the Parsortix(TM) system.
The Chinese Scholarship Council provided funding support for PhD
studentships to some of the researchers.
Notes to the editor
Research paper: 'The novel association of circulating tumor
cells and circulating megakaryocytes with prostate cancer
prognosis'. Lei Xu, Xueying Mao, Tianyu Guo, Pui Ying Chan, Greg
Shaw, John Hines, Elzbieta Stankiewicz, Yuqin Wang, Tim Oliver,
Amar Ahmad, Daniel Berney, Jonathan Shamash, Yong-jie Lu. Clinical
Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-3081
URL when published:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-3081
For further information:
ANGLE plc 01483 343434
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive
Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
Cenkos Securities
Stephen Keys (Nominated adviser),
Steve Cox
Russell Kerr (Sales) 020 7397 8900
WG Partners
David Wilson
Claes Spång 020 3705 9330
FTI Consulting
Simon Conway, Mo Noonan,
Stephanie Cuthbert 020 3727 1000
Kimberly Ha (US) 001 212 850 5612
For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on
http://www.angleplc.com/the-parsortix-system/glossary/
This announcement contains inside information.
About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com
ANGLE is a world-leading liquid biopsy 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(TM)
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 Europe, the United States, Canada, China, Japan
and Australia and three extensive families of patents are being
progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device
that captures live cells based on a combination of their size and
compressibility. Parsortix has a CE Mark for Europe and FDA
authorisation is in process for the United States.
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. Details are available here
http://www.angleplc.com/the-company/collaborators/
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 dollar 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.
As well as cancer, the Parsortix technology has the potential
for deployment with several other important cell types in the
future.
ANGLE stock trades on the AIM market of the London Stock
Exchange under the ticker symbol AGL and in New York on the OTC-QX
under the ticker symbol ANPCY. For further information please
visit: www.angleplc.com
About Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is one of the UK's
leading universities, and one of the largest institutions in the
University of London, with 23,120 students from more than 155
countries.
A member of the Russell Group, we work across the humanities and
social sciences, medicine and dentistry, and science and
engineering, with inspirational teaching directly informed by our
research. In the most recent national assessment of the quality of
research, we were placed ninth in the UK (REF 2014).
As well as our main site at Mile End - which is home to one of
the largest self-contained residential campuses in London - we have
campuses at Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square, and West Smithfield
dedicated to the study of medicine, and a base for legal studies at
Lincoln's Inn Fields.
We have a rich history in London with roots in Europe's first
public hospital, St Barts; England's first medical school, The
London; one of the first colleges to provide higher education to
women, Westfield College; and the Victorian philanthropic project,
the People's Palace at Mile End.
Today, as well as retaining these close connections to our local
community, we are known for our international collaborations in
both teaching and research.
QMUL has an annual turnover of GBP350m, a research income worth
GBP125m (2014/15), and generates employment and output worth
GBP700m to the UK economy each year.
For more information, please contact:
Joel Winston, Public Relations Manager
Queen Mary University of London
j.winston@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 207 882 7943 / +44 (0) 7970 096 188
Orchid - Fighting Male Cancer
Orchid is the UK's leading registered charity focused
exclusively on male-specific cancers. Formed in 1996 by a
testicular cancer patient, Orchid exists to save men's lives from
testicular, prostate, and penile cancers through pioneering
research, the provision of specialist information and support,
campaigns and raising awareness. For more information, please
visit: www.orchid-cancer.org.uk
Help and Advice
Those who have concerns relating to male specific cancers can
seek specialist advice and support from a team of male cancer
information nurse specialists every Monday and Wednesday from
10am-5pm on the freephone Orchid Male Cancer Helpline 0808 802
0010. The Nurse Specialists can also be contacted at
helpline@orchid-cancer.org.uk
Male Cancers
Every year over 50,000 men in the UK will be diagnosed with
prostate, testicular and penile cancer. Of these men over 47,300
will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, over 2,300 will be
diagnosed with testicular cancer and 600 will be diagnosed with the
rare penile cancer. Sadly, these numbers are increasing.
For more information on Orchid, or to speak to an expert or case
study, please contact: James M. Butcher, 01444 811099,
James@spinkhealth.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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