Coping together and apart: exploring how patients and their caregivers manage terminal head and neck cancer.

Head and neck cancer (HNC) challenges the physical, social, and psychological well-being of the individual, and their family and friends, with 50% of patients facing the prospect of dying within 5 years of diagnosis. To enhance care at the end of life, further understanding of how patients and their loved ones cope is needed. Findings from a qualitative study are presented which suggest that patients with terminal HNC and their caregivers cope individually, with support and as a dyad. Relationship qualities which might facilitate coping together as a dyad are described. These may aid distinction between coping together and acts of social support.