Table 2 Themes and supporting quotes

Experience of AP treatment

Rapport with the acupuncturist

Quote 1a: “The doctor doing the AP was really good, very friendly, very interested in what my issues were and trying to, I guess, do different things every session to try to see if they could help” P123(Group)

Initial preference for the treatment arm

Quote 1b: “I mean, I will be hooked up to a machine for 6 h, and there will be 20 people around me with the same thing, and it’s interesting to hear their stories, right, you know, because I like to listen to it. But I still fall asleep no matter what. So, to me, I don’t think it would have mattered that way.” P121 (Individual)

Group vs individual experience

Quote 1c: “You know you’re already self-conscious about it and then being in a place where they’re going to pull up your shirt a little bit and see it, but that was I think the only negative on a group session.” P123 (Group)

Quote 1d: “Well, I haven’t really joined groups to deal with cancer because I feel that if I was around too many people that were really down, you know, really depressed and so on about it that it would make it harder for me to fight it. So, I was -- before I went into it I was hoping for the individual, but once I got into the group nobody was down, nobody was depressed in there, you know” P122. (Group)

Value of Acupuncture treatment

Improvement in symptoms

Quote 2a: “It [the pain] just left, it never went away 100%, but it improved definitely, and it definitely helped me with sleeping, which helps with my overall being in general.” P130 (Group)

Improvement in pain

Quote 2b: “I haven’t really noticed any kinds of changes. An average pain level I guess would be about a six”. P116 (Individual)

Improvement in mood

Quote 3a: “Yeah, well, as you can imagine if you’re in that kind of pain all the time you know, it doesn’t matter how upbeat or happy person that you are, pain wears you down, causes your moods to change because it’s just always there, it’s relentless. So I would say I’m definitely more relaxed and easy-going. I’m not so uptight just because I’m not in pain all the time. So definitely, my mood has been elevated.” P141 (Group)

Improvement in fatigue

Quote 4a: “Yeah, I still feel that if I did too much before, I would flatline. I felt like I couldn’t even leave the house. Now my fatigue level is to the point where I can get through the day and not feel like I have to crawl up and go to sleep; I can actually stay awake for a whole 18 hours.” P148 (Group)

Social support

Quote 5a: “Yeah, I guess so, quite a bit because you know meeting people in the same position that I am and stuff is kind of, yeah, I’m not the only one out there going through this. So, yeah, I’m just a social person, make a difference, yeah.” P107 (Group)

Appropriate time to receive Acupuncture

Quote 6a: “You’ve got through the whole process and a very nice -- it’s very nice to have it at the exit when you finish treatment and, it would be nice to have that 6 week period or something, and it’s kind of an end strategy like you’ve done chemo, you’ve done this, you’ve done -- you’re here, your recovery and I don’t know what proportion of people react positively to it but to have that option would be good.” Participant 126 (Individual)

Intent to pursue private Acupuncture

Quote 7a: “Yeah, that’s I have no idea what it costs. So, but you know my husband would say go for it, it doesn’t matter what it cost just, go for it because it helps so much. So, yeah.” P107 (Group)

Quote 7b: “I think I want to keep doing it on a more continual basis as much as I’d like to. So 35/40 dollars would be more of my budget.” P130 (Group)