Abbott teams up with Angle for metastatic breast cancer study

pharmafile | February 6, 2018 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development |  Abbott, Angle, Cancer, breast cancer, pharma 

Abbott is set to join forces with liquid biopsy medtech firm Angle to collaborate on a study into metastatic breast cancer, it has emerged.

As aprt of a research grant, Abbott will provide Angle with its PathVysion HER-2 DNA FISH Probe kits, to be used in the analysis of circulating tumour cells (CTCs).

When applied to tumour cells collected with solid tissue biopsy, FISH, or fluorescence in situ hybridisation, analysis is used to determine the right cancer treatment. In Angle’s study, this analysis is one of the exploratory endpoints.  

“The PathVysion HER-2 DNA FISH Probe kit is reliable and accurate in tissue biopsy samples and the Parsortix system may unlock the potential for PathVysion use in a simple blood test,” said Kathryn Becker, Franchise Director of Oncology and Companion Diagnostics at Abbott. “We look forward to the outcomes of the study and the potential opportunity to further collaborate with Angle in combining FISH and liquid biopsy in other areas.”

Angle Founder and Chief Executive Andrew Newland added: “Abbott’s PathVysion is the market leader for FISH evaluation of HER-2 in breast cancer.  Following our FDA studies, we hope to be able to work with Abbott to extend PathVysion use into routine blood test analysis as an important downstream application of the Parsortix system in breast cancer.

“Use of ANGLE’s Parsortix system would for the first time enable established tissue biopsy techniques to be used for breast cancer on cancer cells obtained from a simple blood test protecting patients from invasive procedures and improving their care whilst at the same time reducing healthcare costs,” he added.

Matt Fellows