ANGLE PLC (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY) has highlighted new research indicating its Parsortix harvesting technology captured circulating lung cancer cells in frozen as well as fresh blood samples.
Italy’s National Cancer Institute of Milan undertook a study on advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and sarcoma patients with the results published in the Clinical Chemistry journal.
The research demonstrated that Parsortix could successfully isolate circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples, said ANGLE.
“This potential ability to process frozen samples could allow for retrospective analyses and improve sample sharing capabilities in multicentre studies.”
Giulia Bertolini and Vera Cappelletti from the Institute’s Department of Experimental Oncology added: "This study demonstrates the feasibility of CTC analyses in cryopreserved PBMCs and represents an advance in blood sample management for CTC studies, allowing for a better selection of informative time points to longitudinally investigate tumour progression/response to therapy thereby enabling retrospective studies."
Andrew Newland, ANGLE’s chief executive, said: "We are pleased to report on the use of the Parsortix system for the unbiased isolation and molecular characterisation of CTCs from frozen PBMC samples with similar success as from fresh blood samples.
“This approach may help facilitate studies that require time-dependent sampling or are completed across multiple centres.
“DNA analysis of the cancer cells harvested by the Parsortix system offers the potential to track druggable mutations in CTCs as an aid to future treatment decisions for patients with NSCLC."