HOspital Versus Primary Care Breath Test Environment (HOPE) Study

Imperial College London

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Breath Test

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: Breath test

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06611293

24HH8812

Details and patient eligibility

About

Through the HOPE study, the intention would be to determine whether exhaled breath volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles in Primary care differ from Secondary care. The intention would also be to assess intra-subject variability of participants. This would allow us to determine if the results of breath samples are reproducible regardless of whether they are performed in a Primary or Secondary care environment. This would support the clinical translation of breath research outcomes from studies performed in Secondary care, despite the breath test being intended for use in Primary care.

The chief investigator of the HOPE study is Professor George Hanna (Head of Department of Surgery and Cancer, and Professor of Surgical Sciences at Imperial College London).

Full description

A breath test is a non-invasive investigation. The use of a breath test as a triage tool - for cancer or other diseases - in symptomatic patients could identify high-risk patients who should be referred for investigations at an earlier stage. This would increase the proportion of appropriate referrals from Primary care and improve adherence to National Institute for Clinical Health and Excellence (NICE) guidance. If a General Practitioner (GP) is presented with a patient with symptoms that do not prompt referral under NICE guidelines, he/she would no longer need to watch-and-wait to see if their symptoms worsen, but could instead offer a breath test immediately. Breath samples would be collected and sent to a regional laboratory for analysis. A positive result would warrant immediate referral for further specialised investigations, whilst a negative test would permit the GP to reassure the patient and offer re-testing if symptoms persist.

The MAGIC (Methodological Approaches towards a GastroIntestinal Cancer test) study was performed to assess whether breath testing is feasible in Primary care. In this study, 1002 patients took part in the breath test in Primary care. Ninety-nine percent of patients found the breath test very easy or easy to perform, and it was demonstrated that breath testing is feasible in Primary care.

However, the potential for an individual's exhaled breath VOC profile to change when measured across Primary and Secondary care sites has not yet been investigated.

Enrollment: 80 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Participants will be:

• Aged ≥ 18 years old
• Willing and able to provide informed consent to take part in study.

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant women will be excluded from this study. With the exception of pregnant women, there are no additional strict exclusion criteria as individuals will act as their own control.

Trial design

80 participants in 1 patient group

Volunteers taking part in study

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Breath test