Experience of people with advanced cancer faced with the impossibility of cure: a phenomenological analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: To understand the experience of people with advanced-stage cancer given the impossibility of curing the disease. Method: A research based on the Heideggerian phenomenology conducted with 11 people with advanced-stage cancer. Data was collected between November 2015 and March 2016 through an open interview. Results: From the understanding of the reports, three themes emerged: Finding the inevitable possibility of death; Finding oneself through anguish and suffering; Seeking to transcend the existential anguish given the possibility of death. Conclusion and implications for practice: Experiencing incurability or re-experiencing cancer gives patients feelings of apprehension, fear, and frustration. However, suffering causes them to reflect on life and to set out on a new path, founded, above all, on spirituality. The need to accept the “Being” in its human totality is evident, considering its doubts and apprehensions, transcending its physical needs and entering into its biopsychosocial world.