O Lar das Marias e a atenção oncológica no Amazonas: narrativas dos itinerários terapêuticos de mulheres com câncer

Abstract

This research had as its central issue the discussion about the Oncology Care Network in the state of Amazonas. Cancer was considered one of the main causes of death in the world, constituting a public health problem. In 2023, epidemiological data were recorded for 36 types of cancer in 183 countries, including Brazil. The projection was of more than 19 million new cases of cancer worldwide. In men, more deaths were recorded from lung and prostate cancer, and for women, the highest number of deaths was from breast cancer. In Brazil, in the same year, there were 65 thousand new cases of prostate cancer and more than 66 thousand cases of female breast cancer. In Amazonas, 704 new cases of breast cancer were estimated for every 100 thousand inhabitants; In this scenario, 32 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer (INCA, 2023). Lar das Marias was located in the city of Manaus, and at the time of the study, there were 20 women admitted in different phases of treatment for cervical, breast and intestinal cancer. They were aged between 29 and 78 years old, were farmers and domestic workers, coming from the municipalities of Tapauá, Tefé, Barreirinha, Parintins, Itacoatiara and Manacapuru. This study intended to narrate the itinerary of care, treatment and healing of women, from the interior of the state and welcomed at the Lar das Marias shelter, from the moment of the first symptoms and diagnosis until their arrival at the support home. The health care trajectory of women sheltered in the aforementioned Home was adopted as the unit of analysis. From a methodological point of view, the research was developed using a qualitative approach to data collection, based on the use of techniques such as narrative interviews and participant observation. To analyze and understand the data, the theoretical references of Clifford Geertz's Interpretive Anthropology (2022) were used. The results highlighted weaknesses in the oncology care network in Amazonas, especially with regard to primary care services, which was also expressed in the women's narratives when pointing out the diagnosis and beginning of treatment as the most difficult phases of treatment. The women's experience also demonstrated a complex dynamic between emotions and living conditions in the health and illness process, which included feelings, afflictions, expectations and demands for care, determinants and determined by the way in which the flows were established. of care in the oncology network, as well as the political, geographic, economic, social and cultural elements of the way of living in Amazonas.