Yesterday Angle Plc (LON:AGLE) announced that researchers from Queen Mary University of London's Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) published new data further supporting Angle’s Parsortix system for use in prostate cancer applications including an unexpected fundamental discovery that might ignite interest as a new research area in cancer metastasis. The study analysed blood samples from 81 prostate cancer patients and showed that Parsortix captured so-called EMTing cancer cells, those circulating tumour cells (CTCs) that are undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition. EMTing cells were correlated with whether the cancer became metastatic. Namely, the researchers found that EMTing cells combined with the gold standard PSA test had 92% accuracy in predicting metastasis, significantly outperforming PSA alone. The ability to capture EMTing and EMTed cells is what differentiates Parsortix from many other liquid biopsy systems. We are updating our estimates.
The novel finding was the first ever proof that megakaryocytes are present in the blood of prostate cancer patients, albeit very rare. Usually these cells are found in bone marrow and produce platelets for blood clotting. In contrast with EMTed cells (cancer cells that have completed the EMT process), megakaryocytes were found to be associated with better outcomes for prostate cancer patients. The team developed a combined scoring system based on EMTed cells and megakaryocytes harvested by Parsortix. Using data from a subset of 40 patients followed over a 20-month period, the scoring system was able to identify patients who were 10 times more likely to die from the disease in the short term.
To read the entire report Please click on the pdf File Below