In the childhood cancer treatment, the mother often takes care of the sick child. Consequently, studies have focused on the mother-child relationship. This study aimed to understand the father's experience with childhood cancer. A qualitative study was performed and involved 11 parents whose children were treated at the clinic of a referral hospital in Recife-PE. The delimitation of the sample was based on the saturation criterion. Data collection was conducted through interviews during the period of October to December 2011 and analyzed by the method of discourse analysis from Minayo (2000). The results showed that the mother was the main caregiver to the treatment, but the father also carries out activities with the sick child causing several changes in his routine. The host and clinic listening or the creation of support groups for this target audience is important.
Cancer; child; father