Empirical studies of dying cancer patients' experiences have primarily focused upon one of four broad categories of physical, social, psychological and spiritual concerns (Bradshaw 1996, James and Field 1992). While the investigation of these separate areas is important, there has been little research which investigates the overall concerns of people dying of cancer, which the hospice movement has traditionally embraced in its holistic philosophy of care. There is some indication in the literature that the nature of terminal cancer patients' concerns are related to psychological distress (McCorkle and Quint-Benoliel 1983, Maguire, Walsh, Jeacock and Kingston 1999, Morasso, Capelli and Viterbori et al. 1999). This thesis therefore aims to identify terminal cancer patients' concerns and to investigate the implications of those concerns for psychological distress. A multi-methodogical design using both qualitative and quantitative analyses has been used in four studies involving a total of 91 participants who were dying of cancer. The first study investigated terminal cancer patients' concerns from 21 unstructured audio-taped interviews which were transcribed verbatim and content analysed. Ten broad areas of concerns were identified: "past health care", "emotional", "relationship with partner", "relationship with others', "coping", "daily life", "existential", "palliative care", "death and dying" and "needs, wishes and desires". To explore the relationship of these concerns with psychological distress a Concerns questionnaire was developed which was tested in the second study on a further sample of 20 participants along with two established measures of depression and an adapted Rotterdam physical symptom distress scale. A statistical analysis showed five concerns significantly correlated with long term psychological distress; "past health care", "entering into palliative care", "social support of friends", "social support of family" and "total concerns". The number of physical symptoms also correlated with short-term psychological distress. In the third study, the refined version of the Concerns questionnaire, the two depression measures and the symptom scale were all administered to a final sample of 50 participants. Statistical analyses showed: "overall concerns", "meaning of life", "coping", "feelings" and "present health care" were all significantly correlated with long term psychological distress. In addition, "emotional feelings" were highly correlated with short-term psychological distress. In the fourth study, participants' elaborated responses to the structured Concerns questionnaire were recorded in a written format by the researcher. These comments were subsequently thematically analysed and four themes were identified; "told and telling", "evaluating theme", "control" and "loss". These themes illuminate both the statistical findings from the concerns questionnaire in the second and third studies and the issues uncovered in the unstructured interviews in the first study, highlighting the benefits of a multi-methodological approach. The thesis concludes that specific concerns generated by dying cancer patients themselves are important and could be used to predict psychological distress.