I survived cancer: phenomenological analysis of the survivors' language

Abstract

The study attempted to understand the feelings of people who have survived cancer, through qualitative research with Heidegger's phenomenological approach. The study subjects were five cancer survivors, followed up during 2004 and 2005 through a university extension project in the northwestern region of the state of Paraná. Phenomenological interviews were held to capture the survivors' feelings, at their homes, during January and February 2013. "How is it for you to have survived cancer?" was the orienting question. Four ontological issues emerged from the analysis of their discourses: (re-) remembering the vigor of having been; (re-) encountering spirituality; fear of the disease's recurrence; forgetting the temporality of living with cancer. We conclude that, in their being-healed, patients live with anxiety, that throws them into a distressing state for fear of recurrence, as well as enabling them to find a new meaning to life.