Management of breathlessness in patients with cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines

Breathlessness, dyspnoea and shortness of breath are synonymous terms to describe the ‘subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity’.1 2 Chronic breathlessness syndrome was recently defined by an international consensus as breathlessness ‘that persists despite optimum treatment for the underlying pathophysiology and causes disability’.3 4 The pathophysiology and characterisation of breathlessness are described in further details in the supplemental material available at ESMO Open online.