Focus groups are an effective and efficient way of assessing the views of cancer patients and their carers on professionally derived standards of care in oncology, and these views are powerful motivators for the change in delivery of cancer care. Birchall and colleagues (p 516) used focus groups with 40 patients who had head and neck cancer and 18 carers and found that this approach was acceptable to those patients who had an altered appearance and ability to communicate, and also to recently bereaved carers. Some participants also found the sessions therapeutic. In her commentary, Morton, who has been treated for metastatic breast cancer (p 519), says that focus groups for people with cancer should be led by a sympathetic person and not too much should be demanded of patients.
DR P MAZZARI/SPL