ANGLE PLC (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY), the liquid biopsy specialist, flagged a potential new use of its technology at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, through poster presentation.
The study shows the potential of combining two different tests, immunofluorescent (IF) staining and HER2 fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) analysis, with cancer cells collected from blood using ANGLE’s Parsortix system.
The research team successfully separated cancer cells from the blood of patients with advanced breast cancer using Parsortix.
Then they found a specific protein called HER2 and identified different cell types of cancer cells. These findings suggest that combining these methods can help doctors make better treatment decisions for breast cancer patients, as HER2 status can change over time.
The study is particularly important because new drugs are being developed to target low HER2 expression, and the results could expand the market for HER2 testing.
The use of these methods will help meet an unmet medical need by allowing doctors to monitor HER2 status throughout the progression of a patient’s disease.
The founder and chief executive of ANGLE, Andrew Newland, said: “The research presented shows the usefulness of the Parsortix system for collecting cancer cells from blood and analyzing them using a combined IF and FISH method.
“We also demonstrated the successful detection of HER2 protein overexpression in cancer cells isolated from advanced breast cancer patients, demonstrating the potential of using this technique to improve treatment plans to the patient.
“Given the changing dynamics of the HER2 market in response to the introduction of new drugs that target low HER2 expression, we believe that the proof of concept achieved in this study has significant relevance in commerce.”