Percepções, vivências e repercussões psicossociais a partir de um diagnóstico oncológico

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most feared and growing diseases in Brazil, with estimates from representative institutes indicating 704 thousand new cases of the disease in the country, for each year of the 2023-2025 period. As such, receiving an oncology diagnosis brings new possibilities for self-projection and existence in the world. The general objective of this study was to understand the perceptions and experiences of individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer and their psychosocial repercussions from this diagnosis. The methodological approach was qualitative descriptive with a phenomenological strategy, carried out in two stages: (1) theoretical study of literature and documents; and (2) empirical study on the research theme. The setting chosen for the research was the Casa de Apoio Amar é Servir, which shelters patients and their companions undergoing oncology treatment at the High Complexity Oncology Unit in the municipality of Tucuruí-PA. The research participants were three men and three women, all older adults, with low education, who received an oncology diagnosis in the period of four to ten months. The instrument used for data collection was the semi-structured interview, and the data was treated using Amedeo Giorgi's phenomenological method and analysis based on Martin Heidegger. The results pointed to units of discourse on the resignification of the experience of the cancer diagnosis through spirituality and transcendence; feeling of ambivalence, even with feelings of anguish regarding worldly experiences; and presented changes in three aspects in the new reality: health care and bodily well-being, occupation, financial life, and support network. This corroborates Heidegger’s assertion that we are thrown into the world, thus, we are thrown into the midst of facticity, and it is up to our Being-there to project ourselves and find new temporal possibilities, to transcend and exist. Finally, it was observed that in the face of an oncology diagnosis, perception and experience are crossed by socioeconomic contexts and the meanings of interpersonal relationships, showing them as secondary and non-impactful. This study is original, relevant, and fundamental in the social and scientific scope, as it evidenced the narrative of the experience of a diagnosis of a disease considered fatal and the unveiling of its world and can therefore aid in strategies for professionals' care that focuses on the dimensions of the individual and not just the diagnoses themselves, in an integrated and humanized way.