CelLBxHealth has announced that its Parsortix circulating tumour cell (CTC) platform has demonstrated the ability to detect ADC targets in blood samples from patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).
The company has said that this could potentially support minimally invasive biomarker workflows for oncology drug development.
The findings, published in The Journal of Liquid Biopsy, came from independent researchers at Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital in Ireland.
The study
The study evaluated CTCs isolated using Parsortix and assessed expression of TROP-2, folate receptor alpha (FRα) and PD-L1.
TROP-2 was detected on CTCs from patients with TNBC, including cells with low expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM).
This could be significant for CTC analysis because EpCAM-dependent enrichment approaches can preferentially capture epithelial tumour cells, potentially excluding more mesenchymal or EpCAM-low populations.
TROP-2 is the target of sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy, manufactured and commercialised by Gilead Sciences), which has recently gained an expanded role in TNBC after the US FDA approved the ADC for first-line treatment of certain patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic disease.
The researchers also detected FRα-positive CTCs in all three ovarian cancer patients evaluated.
FRα is the target of mirvetuximab soravtansine (Elahere, manufactured by Abbvie), an FDA-approved ADC for FRα-positive, platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancers.
The study additionally demonstrated detection of PD-L1 alongside TROP-2 on the same CTCs, highlighting the potential for multiplex biomarker assessment from a single blood sample.
The authors noted heterogeneous antigen expression across cell lines and demonstrated that Parsortix enrichment could support in-cassette detection of the selected targets before applying the workflow to patient-derived samples.
"This publication, conducted by a leading centre, demonstrates the potential of the Parsortix platform to support assessment of clinically relevant ADC targets on CTCs," said Dr Lavanya Sivapalan, CelLBxHealth Chief Scientific Officer.
Antibody-drug conjugates are transforming the oncology treatment landscape and the ability to evaluate target expression from a blood sample could become an important tool for future therapy monitoring workflows.
Growing ADC pipeline drives biomarker demand
For pharmaceutical developers, the research has been published as ADC pipelines are continuing to expand, which is increasing demand for biomarkers capable of characterising target expression and patient heterogeneity.
Global ADC market estimates vary, but several forecasts place the 2026 market in the region of $14-23bn.
The study therefore points towards a potential role for CTC-based assays as a complementary approach to tissue biopsy, although further clinical validation will be required before such workflows can be used to guide treatment decisions.
