ANGLE plc, the specialist medtech company, is pleased to announce that the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has presented highly promising results from the first phase of its work with ANGLE's Parsortix system on a liquid biopsy for breast cancer.
Dr Julie E. Lang, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor of Surgery, specialising in breast cancer and notably in molecular profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer, presented results from USC's work with ANGLE's Parsortix system at the World CDx Conference in Boston.
USC have compared the RNA molecular results of a liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system (simple blood test) with those from the biopsy of metastatic sites (the secondary cancer locations) in metastatic breast cancer patients.
The main findings from the first four patients are as follows:
- In all of the patients analysed, the Parsortix system provided highly enriched CTCs suitable for rare cell amplification and RNA Seq analysis to detect relevant biomarkers and potentially discover novel biomarkers in breast cancer.
- The CTCs for the Parsortix liquid biopsy had similar patterns of gene expression to the traditional biopsy of cancer cells from metastatic sites.
- There was some degree of heterogeneity in the CTCs, which suggests they may provide additional clinical information beyond that found at a single metastatic site and may be representative of multiple metastatic sites. Metastatic biopsies are invasive, often requiring surgery, and therefore can cause the patient considerable additional complications. Furthermore, such metastatic biopsies can be expensive and may delay aspects of the patient's ongoing treatment while they recover from surgery.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second most common overall. More than 1.7 million cases of breast cancer were recorded in 2012, accounting for around 12 per cent of all new cancer cases and 25 per cent in women (Source: World Cancer Research Fund International).
The Parsortix system offers the potential to replace the metastatic biopsy for breast cancer with a simple blood test that can be repeated as often as needed, thereby providing "real- time" information for therapy selection reflecting disease progression.
The next phase of the work will complete analysis for the remaining patient cohort and investigate the profiling of CTCs' biology sequentially over time to support treatment decisions in relation to HER2 directed therapy, chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy. Liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system may enable physicians to make more informed treatment decisions for women with breast cancer, ensuring that they are given therapies that will benefit them and not given therapies which will not. The Parsortix liquid biopsy may also identify novel treatment targets for new drugs in the future.
ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:
"USC's results with Parsortix in metastatic breast cancer are highly encouraging and suggest our liquid biopsy using the Parsortix system may have a role in enabling physicians to make more informed treatment decisions for women with breast cancer as well as identifying novel treatment targets for new drugs in the future. There is a significant need for simple and accurate diagnostics to support cancer therapy. We believe the Parsortix system offers a non-invasive medical approach that has the potential to transform the detection of cancer and significantly improve the treatment of cancer patients through precision medicine."