ANGLE PLC (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY)’s liquid biopsy system may be able to provide a rapid assessment of how a patient is responding to chemotherapy treatment designed to halt the spread of cancer to secondary sites.
Researchers using preclinical models of triple-negative breast cancer were able to isolate circulating tumour cells using ANGLE’s Parsortix device, which requires a simple blood draw.
They were then able to check for microtentacles that enable the spread and formation of tumours in other parts of the body.
These microtentacles are supported by microtubules, which are the target for many chemotherapy drugs, such as vinorelbine, which was used in this study.
The work was carried out at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Baltimore, in the US.
The Institute’s Professor Stuart Martin explained: "Cancer drugs that broadly disrupt microtubules have long proven effective at reducing tumour growth and improving patient survival, but also have significant toxicities that limit dosing.
“The focused treatment reported here reduced micro-tentacles and metastasis at well below the maximum-tolerated dose.
“If it is possible to use a focused treatment to reduce CTC [circulating tumour cell] metastasis, the most likely opportunity for therapies to reduce CTC metastasis would be combination therapy at the time of primary tumour treatment, helping to ensure that CTCs shed by that primary tumour treatment have reduced metastatic potential.”