Supporting characterisation of CTCs in HNSCC

RESEARCH DEMONSTRATES POTENTIAL OF THE PARSORTIX SYSTEM TO SUPPORT POWERFUL CHARACTERISATION OF CTCS IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER

41 key biomarkers including the immune checkpoint proteins PD-L1, CTLA4 and CD39 successfully evaluated

Providing key information which could support the development of personalised treatment strategies in HNSCC

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovative circulating tumour cell (CTC) diagnostic solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical oncology, is pleased to announce the publication of a study using the Parsortix system that sheds new light on the phenotypic characteristics of CTCs in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC).

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Birmingham, UK, demonstrates the feasibility of using mass cytometry, a powerful technique widely used for single cell analysis, for the comprehensive characterisation of CTCs captured by the Parsortix system in HNSCC patients. This advanced technology enables simultaneous analysis of multiple proteins on and within individual CTCs, providing a deep understanding of their phenotypic status and diversity. As a marker-independent method for CTC harvesting, the Parsortix system was able to isolate a diversity of CTCs revealing a correlation between epithelial to mesenchymal transition and immune checkpoint protein expression.

HNSCC is an aggressive, genetically complex, and difficult to treat group of cancers with limited options for early detection and monitoring. Head and Neck cancers are a significant global health concern with ~900,000 new cases each year at an estimated cost to the global economy of more than US$40 billion per annum. The findings of this study provide new insight into the molecular heterogeneity of HNSCC and offers the potential to enable development of more precise and personalised treatment strategies for patients and real-time monitoring of treatment response. Furthermore, the protocol established in this publication holds promise as a tool for the use of proteomic data, obtained from Parsortix harvested CTCs, to be used for novel biomarker development and the potential for identification of patients who may be eligible for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

The study is published as a peer-reviewed journal article in the British Journal of Cancer and is available online at https://angleplc.com/publications/.

Principal Investigator, Dr Karl Payne, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery from the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK, commented:

"To our knowledge, our work represents the first use of cell suspension mass cytometry to characterise CTCs. With this protocol, phenotype and activation status of critical intracellular cell signalling proteins can be measured in CTCs and peripheral blood immune cells. By allowing high-dimensional single-cell CTC data to be obtained from patients recruited across multiple research sites, we believe our method will accelerate clinical study recruitment and enable robust analysis of CTCs in rare cancers."

ANGLE Chief Scientific Officer, Karen Miller, commented:

"We are pleased to share this peer-reviewed publication by the University of Birmingham demonstrating the high-throughput and high sensitivity of mass cytometry for downstream multiplexed analysis of both surface and intracellular proteins on and in CTCs. In this study, the heterogeneity of CTC sub-groups and their relationship to targetable markers, in particular the druggable immune checkpoints, is notable. The Parsortix system allows for the unbiased isolation and harvest of CTCs and as such, can enable the evaluation of phenotypically diverse CTCs in a patient's blood. This could lead to future improvements in clinical decision making."

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.