Angle launches PD-L1 test to support cancer therapy studies

13-Nov-2023 - Last updated on 13-Nov-2023 at 13:49 GMT

Angle, a liquid biopsy company with circulating tumour cell (CTC) diagnostic solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical oncology, has launched its Portrait PD-L1 test for the evaluation of PD-L1 protein expression on CTCs.

PD-L1 is an immune-related biomarker that can be expressed on the surface of tumour cells across a range of cancer type. Expression of this biomarker enables cancer cells to evade immune response mechanisms that would typically keep abnormal cell growth in check.

Consequently, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have emerged as the leading immunotherapy treatment option with over 2,800 active interventional studies in progress involving 430,000 patients.

The output of current tumour tissue-based PD-L1 tests varies considerably, with poor performance often unavoidable due to the elapsed time between tissue biopsy and disease progression when immunotherapies are considered, during which time PD-L1 status can change.

The company has developed its immunofluorescence (IF) based test for the determination of PD-L1 status on CTCs to allow real-time assessment of biomarker status, which may address this issue in current PD-L1 tests via a simple blood test.

Angle’s test is an end-to-end solution using CTCs harvested from the Parsortix system to investigate real-time patient PD-L1 status.

The global PD-1 and PD-L1 immunotherapy market is currently valued at $36.9 billion per annum, and analysts predict the market to reach $109.1 billion by 2032.

Angle’s test could help with patient stratification in biopharmaceutical drug trials, and act as an early predictor of treatment response and disease recurrence, the company said.

“Whilst immune checkpoint inhibitors have achieved remarkable progress in tumour treatment, the cost of treatment is high and currently the majority of patients fail to respond,” Angle CEO and founder Andrew Newland said.

“ANGLE’s Portrait PD-L1 test provides accurate, repeatable, and precise PD-L1 identification on CTCs and hence has the potential to streamline patient selection and optimise PD-L1 monitoring for treatment response and disease progression throughout clinical studies.

“We are now beginning an active promotion of this test to biopharma customers.”