Shares in CelLBxHealth PLC (AIM:CLBX, FRA:DWV) rose 6% to 1.35p after it said an independent study had shown its Parsortix system can detect the biological targets used by a fast-growing class of cancer drugs on tumour cells captured from patients' blood.
The peer-reviewed research, published in The Journal of Liquid Biopsy, was carried out by researchers at Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital, Dublin.
They used the Parsortix liquid biopsy to isolate circulating tumour cells, cancer cells that break away from a tumour and travel in the bloodstream, from patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.
The study detected TROP-2, the target of the approved breast cancer drug sacituzumab govitecan, on cells from breast cancer patients.
Critically, it found the target on cells carrying low levels of EpCAM, a surface marker that rival cell capture platforms depend on and which would therefore have missed those cells entirely.
That matters in aggressive cancers such as triple-negative breast cancer, where tumour cells frequently shed the marker as they change form.
The researchers also detected FRα, the target of the ovarian cancer drug mirvetuximab soravtansine, on cells from all three ovarian cancer patients in the study.
PD-L1, a marker relevant to immunotherapy, was picked up alongside TROP-2 on the same cells in the same workflow.
Antibody-drug conjugates deliver a toxic payload directly into cancer cells using a targeted antibody, and represent a global market the company puts at $17 billion.
Their effectiveness depends on the cancer displaying the relevant target, which varies between patients and can shift as the disease evolves or develops resistance.
Assessment currently relies on tissue samples, which offer only a static snapshot.
Lavanya Sivapalan, chief scientific officer, said the ability to evaluate target expression from a blood sample could become an important tool in future therapy monitoring.
She said the work was aligned with the company's revised strategy of focusing on high-value applications in research, drug development and translational oncology.
---ADDS SHARE PRICE RISE---
