ANGLE PLC (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY)'s novel assay to test for breast cancer is being featured in a poster presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, including data from a successful in-house study.
The poster reads: "Development and analytical validation of a novel assay for HER2 assessment on circulating tumor cells harvested using the Parsortix system and incorporating BioView imaging technologies."
It explains the collaboration over an end-to-end assay for the evaluation of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) gene amplification and protein expression in circulating tumour cells (CTCs) harvested from the blood of metastatic breast cancer patients.
The presented data showcases the development and analytical validation of this assay using an automated, high-throughput platform for imaging and identification of CTCs, which facilitates the assessment of CTC classification, HER2 biomarker expression and assessment of HER2 gene copy number, the company said.
Using the assay has provided the ability to detect HER2 positive CTCs in patients who were previously HER2 negative based on a primary tissue biopsy.
This assay is being developed as a product kit for minimally invasive identification of HER2 positive and HER2 low patients, who may benefit from HER2-targeted therapies and HER2 antibody-drug conjugates.
It involves ANGLE's Parsortix system for harvesting CTCs for analysis, BioView's imaging and analysis technologies, and the new HER2 CTC staining kit, meaning that a simple blood test can give an up-to-date HER2 status for breast cancer patients on a repeat basis.
Chief scientific officer Karen Miller said the AACR's annual meeting is one of the key annual events in the cancer research calendar and the company is keen to engage with the multidisciplinary attendees at the event to showcase the novel HER2 assay in partnership with BioView.