Introduction:

the increase in the number of people with cancer poses a challenge to health services and encourages palliative care to take place in the family space; however, informal caregivers have insufficient information on whether or not to tell the truth or how and when to do so.

Objective:

to characterize the facing to the death by informal caregivers of patients with cancer in a terminal state.

Methods:

a cross-sectional study was developed; 64 caregivers constituted the universe, 53 the sample, selected by non-probabilistic sampling. A questionnaire was applied. Sociodemographic variables and characteristics of coping with death were defined. Statistically, the Chi-square test of independence and the Chi-square test of independence were used.

Results:

52.8% were between 50 and 59 years old, 90.6% were women, 47.2% wished to know the truth if they were ill, 67.9% were not consoled by the death, 69.8% felt uneasiness and 52.8% sadness.

Conclusions:

caregivers between 50 and 59 years old were predominantly female. Most of them did not want to tell the patient the truth and wished to know it if they were in the patient's place. They considered that death was natural. Uneasiness and sadness were common.

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