Effectiveness of a specialised breathlessness service for patients with advanced disease in Germany: a pragmatic fast track randomised controlled trial (BreathEase).

Breathlessness is a common and distressing symptom in advanced stages of malignant and non-malignant disease [1–4]. Breathlessness is highly prevalent, occurring in up to 80% of patients with advanced cancer, in around 56–98% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in up to 90% of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) [5, 6]. Patients with chronic breathlessness resulting from advanced disease report high symptom burden, palliative care needs [7–9] and suffer from anxiety and depression [10]. Negative consequences on health and quality of life (QoL) have been shown, e.g. for COPD patients [11]. Breathlessness is one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits and hospital admissions in cancer patients [12–14]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Schunk reports grants from BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), during the conduct of the study;. Conflict of interest: Dr. Le has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Syunyaeva has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Haberland has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Dr. med. Tanzler has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Mansmann has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Schwarzkopf has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Seidl has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Streitwieser has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Hofmann has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Mueller has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Weis has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Morawietz has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Rehfuess has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Huber reports grants from German Ministry of Education and Research, during the conduct of the study;. Conflict of interest: Dr. Berger reports grants from Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany (BMBF), during the conduct of the study;. Conflict of interest: Dr. Bausewein reports grants from German Ministry of Research and Education, during the conduct of the study;.