The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of people affected by cancer in the first year following diagnosis with breast, lung, colorectal, prostate or gynaecological cancer. This was a descriptive qualitative study conducted over a period of 18 months during which three serial, longitudinal semi-structured interviews with 66 people, their nominated partner/carer1 (n=43) and healthcare professional (n=20) were conducted. The study included 18 people with colorectal cancer, 12 women with breast cancer, 9 women with gynaecological cancer, 17 people with lung cancer and 10 men with prostate cancer. The sampling strategy was not designed to derive a representative sample but to enable the researchers to understand experience of cancer and cancer care from men and women with a different cancer diagnosis and who had different socio-economic backgrounds and lived either in a rural or urban area. A conscious effort was made to include people from different ethnic minority groups but this was unsuccessful because no or very small numbers of people from these groups were diagnosed with cancer during the period of recruitment in the cancer centres where healthcare professionals were recruiting for the study
