ANGLE PLC (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY) highlighted that researchers at a leading cancer research institute successfully used the company’s Parsortix system to analyse and provide information on tumour evolution in patients undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.
The Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, in Milan, Italy, has published results in a peer-reviewed journal of a study undertaken in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), which is administered before surgery.
TNBC is estimated to account for about 10-15% of all breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society, and differs from other cancers in that it grows and spreads faster, has limited treatment choices, and a worse prognosis.
Parsotix was used to isolate circulating tumour cells (CTCs) before, during and after NAC treatment, alongside the collection of primary tumour tissue samples pre- and post-treatment, to analyse for copy number alterations (CNAs).
Using ANGLE's system to harvest and retrieve single CTCs, the authors of the study then analysed both epithelial and non-epithelial CTCs to allow them to characterise CTCs in a way that would not be possible with other approaches, the company said.
Analysis of CTCs before, during and after NAC treatment allowed the researchers to track the individual evolution of a patient's TNBC, revealing treatment-induced resistance to the chemotherapy as well as the identification of newly acquired genetic changes that could provide additional treatment options, ANGLE said, adding that in two patients, CTCs collected after NAC treatment shared more genomic alterations with the residual tumour, i.e. post-NAC treatment, compared to the primary tumour.
ANGLE said the study, which is available online on its website, demonstrates how using the Parsortix system for such analysis has the potential to provide information on TNBC tumour evolution and identify actionable therapeutic targets that could help determine future treatment options for patients with chemotherapy-resistant disease.
“The extreme heterogeneity of triple negative breast cancer has led to difficulties in finding suitable molecular targets. This has resulted in limited benefit from targeted therapies observed in clinical trials,” said Dr Vera Cappaletti at the National Cancer Institute of Milan.
“Implementing longitudinal monitoring, through liquid biopsy of CTCs, is a crucial step for improving treatment efficacy and represents an optimal approach to be pursued in future studies to implement personalized medicine."
ANGLE chief executive Andrew Newland added: “We are pleased to report on the use of the Parsortix system for the unbiased isolation of both epithelial and mesenchymal CTCs in TNBC, uncovering potential new therapeutic targets. ANGLE's ability to provide actionable insights could help patients with limited treatment options and should prove highly attractive to drug developers looking for new approaches for hard-to-treat cancers, such as TNBC."