Background Communicating with patients about their prognosis and goals of care, including offering opportunities to engage in advance care planning (ACP) is widely recognised as best practice. Little is known about terminally ill patients’ perceptions of communication and ACP practice following disclosure of their terminal prognosis.

Objectives To examine whether terminally ill patients with lung cancer and their relatives recall conversations with disclosing physicians, about their concerns, goals of care or any offers to engage in ACP.

Methods Qualitative study using semistructured interviews with patients and their family members. The study setting was a cancer centre and cancer unit in northern England.

Results 25 patients with advanced lung cancer (18 men and 7 women, aged 47–85) and 19 family members, mainly from lower social economic classes, took part in the study. Participants had little or no recall of physicians initiating discussions about their concerns, or goals of care and did not perceive that they had been provided with either information about or opportunities to engage in ACP. Some participants reported a sense of abandonment following the disclosure of a terminal prognosis. This sense was compounded by a range of difficult emotional experiences following the disclosure.

Conclusions It may be inappropriate to initiate discussions about end-of-life care planning immediately following the disclosure of a terminal prognosis. To avoid patients feeling abandoned physicians need to consider how they or another appropriate person can provide information and opportunities for terminally ill patients to engage in a process of ACP.

Trial registration number 06/Q2307/22.