The trajectory of this study was focused on understanding the meaning of taking care of women with cancer, without any possibilities of cure, through their perspective. With this proposal, we chose to carry out a qualitative survey, according to a phenomenological approach, based on these directive questions: "Tell me how I can take care of you. How would you like to be taken care of?" The descriptions evidenced the ontological unifications that were analyzed and interpreted according to Martin Heidegger's reference framework. These unifications made it possible to reveal ways for the act of taking care in the dying process that go beyond technical-scientific knowledge, because taking care also involves empathy, listening, patience, zeal, pain control and autonomy. Based on these women's point of view, we could reach the sense of being a person with cancer in the dying process, not as something finished, but as a person with possibilities, in spite of facing the factual situation of living with the existential end.
oncologic nursing; nursing care