LONDON - Weill Cornell Medicine has unveiled a semi-automated workflow for assessing the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which took place from December 10 to December 13, 2024. The independent study supports the HER2 assay development program by ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL, OTCQX:ANPCY), a leader in liquid biopsy technology.
The innovative methodology, which utilizes ANGLE's Parsortix system, could potentially change how breast cancer patients are stratified for treatment with HER2 antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The test is designed to provide a real-time, minimally invasive assessment of HER2, a protein linked to many cancers, and is crucial as HER2 status can change over time in breast cancer patients.
The study reported findings from 16 metastatic breast cancer patients, demonstrating that the Parsortix system could isolate and classify CTCs and CTC-clusters as HER2-high, intermediate, low, or negative. Notably, the study identified patients with HER2-expressing CTCs who had a HER2-negative tissue biopsy, highlighting the potential of this workflow to identify patients eligible for HER2-targeted therapies, which they would otherwise be excluded from based on initial tissue biopsies.
Dr. Carolina Reduzzi from Weill Cornell Medicine stated that the workflow allows for quantitative and semi-automated assessment of HER2 in CTCs, which could be instrumental in guiding treatment and identifying changes in HER2 expression that may benefit from ADCs. The goal is to develop automated workflows for longitudinal CTC assessment of biomarker status, which could predict treatment response and assist in targeted treatment selection.
ANGLE's Chief Scientific Officer, Karen Miller, expressed satisfaction with the new data that independently validates ANGLE's findings and emphasized the importance of real-time quantitative HER2 assessment for effective treatment and clinical trial stratification.
This development represents a significant step in the field of liquid biopsy and personalized medicine for breast cancer treatment. The poster detailing the study is available on ANGLE's website, and the company continues to focus on clinical services and diagnostic products through its FDA-cleared and patented Parsortix system.
The information in this article is based on a press release statement from ANGLE plc.
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