Purpose of the research: To explore the lived experience of multiple concurrent symptoms in people with
advanced lung cancer to contribute to the understanding of the experience of symptom clusters.
Methods and sample: Purposive sampling recruited ten people with advanced lung cancer who were
experiencing three or more concurrent symptoms, were at least 18 years of age and were able to provide
written informed consent. The participants took part in two consecutive, in-depth interviews, 3e5 weeks
apart. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings: Participants experienced 4e11 concurrent symptoms with fatigue, cough, pain and breathlessness
featuring prominently in their interviews. The participants commonly identified associations
between the symptoms that they experienced, with the occurrence of one symptom often used to
explain the occurrence of another. Reductions in physical and social functioning were often associated
with the experience of multiple concurrent symptoms, particularly at times of high symptom severity.
The participants’ highlighted breathlessness and cough as being of particular salience, due to the association
of these symptoms with fear of death and visibility and embarrassment in public.
Conclusions: People with lung cancer experience multiple concurrent symptoms and perceive relationships
between the symptoms experienced. Within the experience of multiple symptoms, people with
lung cancer highlight individual symptoms that are of particular importance, based on their concomitant
meanings. Such findings provide vital information for the future development of meaning-based
symptom cluster interventions