A Pilot Study of the VosCryoTM Breathalyser in Lung Cancer (CryoPilot)

July 13, 2026 updated by: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

CryoPilot is a single-centre pilot study being conducted at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield, UK. The goal of this pilot study is to determine whether small-volume exhaled breath condensate sample (EBC) obtained via a VosCryo™ breath sample collection device can provide quantifiable and analysable cellular material, including epithelial cells, leukocytes, or exfoliated tumour cells, in patients with late-stage lung cancer. The main question it aims to answer is whether a breath sample can provide the necessary cellular information that could eventually be used for diagnostic purposes.

The secondary objective is to compare the presence and quality of such material with that obtained from healthy relatives who will act as a low-risk control group, to assess whether EBC-based analysis may differentiate between cancerous and non-cancerous states.

As such this pilot study will have two arms:

  • Experimental arm: 12 patients with late-stage lung cancer
  • Control arm: 12 low-risk relatives of patients with late-stage lung cancer

Participants will be approached during their visit to Weston Park Hospital and asked to provide informed consent, followed by provision of a breath sample.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Lung cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with late-stage diagnosis contributing substantially to poor prognosis (Bray et al., 2024). Despite advancements in imaging and molecular diagnostics, early detection strategies remain inadequate for population-wide screening, particularly in resource-limited settings. There is therefore an urgent need for novel, non-invasive, and cost-effective diagnostic approaches suitable for use in at-risk populations, such as individuals with a family history of lung cancer or those with a history of significant exposure to tobacco smoke.

Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) offers a promising, non-invasive source of biomarkers for respiratory diseases including lung cancer (Carpagnano et al., 2005; Palomba et al., 2023). EBC is a biological fluid formed by the cooling of exhaled breath and contains aerosolised droplets from the respiratory tract, including proteins, nucleic acids, volatile organic compounds, and, occasionally, cellular material (Horvath et al., 2005; Mutlu et al., 2001). These components may reflect pathological processes occurring in the lower airways and alveoli, thus offering a window into the disease state without the risks associated with bronchoscopy or biopsy.

Recent technological developments have enabled the reproducible collection of small volumes of EBC in a clinically practical timeframe. The VosCryo™ device, is a commercially available disposable device that collects approximately 100-200 µL of condensate in about one minute. The VosCryo™ which we will use, is a fast, non-invasive, and reliable EBC collector, optimized for small-volume sampling (50-200 µL/min).

Primarily the study aims to determine whether small-volume EBC obtained via VosCryo™ from late-stage lung cancer patients contains quantifiable and analysable cellular material, including epithelial cells, leukocytes, or exfoliated tumour cells. This will be determined from the proportion of participants with lung cancer with analysable material within their exhaled breath condensate. The study also aims to compare the presence and quality of such material with that obtained from healthy relatives (acting as a low-risk control group), to assess whether EBC-based analysis may differentiate between cancer and non-cancer states, and therefore will recruit from two cohorts - patients with late stage lung cancer and relatives of late-stage cancer patients with no evidence/low risk of cancer. This exploratory pilot study will inform the viability of future development of EBC as a low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic in patients with advanced and early-stage lung cancer, and as a potential screening tool for use in at-risk populations, and may lead to larger scale studies.

This will be a single-centre pilot study run at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield, United Kingdom, with patients and relatives recruited by clinical/medical oncologists and clinical trials assistants during their routine oncology clinic appointments. Patients attending the lung cancer clinic without an accompanying relative can be approached for study participation. Consenting patients with an accompanying relative who declines study participation can be included, as can consenting relatives with a patient who declines.

With patient consent, the study will collect a range of data at the single baseline visit for descriptive statistical analysis, including:

  • Sex.
  • Age.
  • Smoking status - never smoker, ex-smoker (not smoked >12 months), recent ex-smoker (smoked ≤12 months), current smoker (smoked within past 14 days), vapes.
  • TNM tumour stage 9th edition (where appropriate) from most recent staging scans performed as part of NHS standard of care.
  • Tumour histology (where appropriate) including histological subtype, immunohistochemistry profile, mutation profile and PD-L1 status from results reported as part of NHS standard of care investigations.
  • History of any concurrent pulmonary disease (e.g. emphysema, interstitial lung disease)

EBC Research Samples will be analysed using immunocytochemistry, indirect RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and qPCR-based analysis of genes expressed in epithelial and immune cell types. The samples will also be stored for the duration of the project (18 months), and may be re-analysed in future projects using techniques such as ELISA, fluorescence microscopy or mass spectrometry.

It is estimated that participant recruitment and sample collection will be completed over a 6-month period, with subsequent sample and data analysis completing over an additional 12-month period.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

24

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population will consist of two cohorts of participants:

  • Patients with previously untreated advanced lung cancer, who meet the relevant inclusion criteria and are under treatment at or have been referred to Weston Park Hospital
  • Friends or relatives with no history of lung cancer, who are accompanying a patient with advanced lung cancer to Weston Park Hospital

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age ≥16 years old
  • Ability to provide written informed consent

  • Either a history of advanced non-small cell or small cell lung cancer with intra-thoracic disease (pulmonary primary or pulmonary metastases), previously untreated by systemic anti-cancer treatment or radiotherapy

    • Patients with previously treated early-stage lung cancer are permitted
    • Patients with advanced disease with extra-thoracic disease previously treated by local therapy (e.g., palliative radiotherapy to a bone metastasis, or post brain metastectomy), which in the opinion of the Principal Investigator is unlikely to impact the quality of the EBC research sample are eligible
  • OR an attending relative or friend with no history of lung cancer or any other primary cancer, except for curatively treated non-melanomatous skin cancer or carcinoma in situ, unless the participant has been free of malignancy and off treatment for a period of at least 2 years prior to study enrolment
  • No intercurrent upper or lower respiratory tract infection
  • Able to complete the EBC sample collection

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants with lung metastases from non-lung primary tumours
  • Participants unable to consent or unable to comply with the requirements for EBC sample collection

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental Arm
Patients with advanced/late-stage lung cancer
Other: Expiratory Breath Condensate Collection
Collection of Expiratory Breath Condensate using the VosCryo device
Control Arm
Relatives of advanced lung cancer patients, at low risk of/with no known malignancy.
Other: Expiratory Breath Condensate Collection
Collection of Expiratory Breath Condensate using the VosCryo device

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Availability of Analysable Sample Material
Time Frame: At Collection of EBC Sample
The number of participants with lung cancer out of the total recruited to the experimental arm, who have analysable material within their exhaled breath condensate.
At Collection of EBC Sample

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cross-Cohort Sample Discrepancy
Time Frame: Variation in gene expression identified at end of study, from samples collected at baseline visit.
Variation in gene expression in epithelial and immune cells between advanced lung cancer patients and healthy controls, as demonstrated by RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and qPCR-based analysis of EBC samples.
Variation in gene expression identified at end of study, from samples collected at baseline visit.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Collaborators

University of Sheffield

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robin J Young, MBChB MRCP PhD, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 8, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 14, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 13, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STH23461
  • IRAS (Other Identifier: 348018)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

For protection of participants, raw individual participant data will not be distributed outside of the immediate research team. Pseudonymised individual data will be transferred to partnering organisations (e.g., University of Sheffield) for data analysis purposes, and overall findings will be relayed to participants and may be publicised in academic journals/conferences, however IPD will be retained by the immediate study team.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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