ANGLE PLC (LON:AGL) has revealed its cancer detection device played an important role in research that may one day help prevent the spread of cancer around the body.
Scientists at the University of Basel, Switzerland, used ANGLE’s Parsortix liquid biopsy to isolate metastatic circulating tumour cell clusters - a group of cancer and other cells tethered together as a single mass.
WATCH: ANGLE plc's Parsortix device plays critical role in ground-breaking new cancer research
Once these clusters were identified, the Basel team, led by Professor Nicola Aceto, was able to treat them with repurposed drugs already on the market.
Eye-catching
Eye-catching was the fact that this approach led to a “near total elimination” of metastasis in animal models.
As most people will know, metastasis is where cancer spreads to other parts of the body via the bloodstream. It is responsible for more than 90% of all cancer-related deaths.
The detail of the research undertaken by the Cancer Metastasis Laboratory was published Friday (Jan 11) as a peer-reviewed article in the prestigious journal, Cell.
ANGLE is seeking US Food & Drug Administration approval for Parsortix.
Ground-breaking
Chief executive, Andrew Newland, said: "The ground-breaking CTC cluster work undertaken over the last three years by the University of Basel, one of ANGLE's leading customers, highlights completely new clinical uses for the Parsortix system with the potential to play a central role in dramatically improving patient outcomes.
“This is a key potential application for Parsortix liquid biopsy once we receive FDA clearance.
“Our ultimate aim is for the Parsortix system to be routinely used for all cancer patients in the future."
---Repeated from Thursday evening---