The objective of the report that this article is based upon is to evaluate Danish cancer patients’ experiences of the overall treatment process in the health care system, including a comparison of experiences between the five Danish regions and nine different diagnoses.

Since 2000 The Unit of Patient-Perceived Quality has conducted recurring national postal surveys on “Patient’ experiences in Danish hospitals”. In 2008, for the first time, a similar survey was conducted based only on the experiences of cancer patients. The survey was initiated by the Ministry of Health and Prevention.

The development of the questionnaire was based on five user-panels consisting of patients with relevant cancer diagnoses. The purpose of the user-panels was to identify the most important factors in a treatment process. In addition, knowledge from professional environments and the existing national surveys were included. The questionnaire was validated through 18 cognitive interviews with cancer patients.

The survey was based on a representative sample of both inpatients and outpatients with one of the following diagnoses: lung-, breast-, prostate-, head-/neck-, colon-, rectum-, ovary-, uterus-, or collum cancer. All patients had been in contact with a public or private hospital in Denmark during the period January to June 2008. The response rate was 68 percent, and the data material consisted of 12,716 patients. The statistical analyses used were descriptive frequencies, cross tabs and weighted frequencies. Comparisons were carried out using ordinal logistic regressions adjusted by age and gender and the regions and diagnoses were ranked as above, below or on average.