LAUSR

OBJECTIVES to interpret the socio-cultural, religious, and spiritual aspects of the experience of people who have colorectal cancer and were submitted to surgical treatment with ostomy. METHODS ethnographic study under the perspective of the Sociology of Health, in the comprehensive aspect, in a surgical unit of an oncologic hospital of the state of Pará, Brazil. Eighteen deponents participated, eleven patients, and seven caregivers, between December 2018 and March 2019. Data were obtained with non-participant observation, field diary records, and semi-structured interviews with subsequent inductive content analysis. RESULTS religious attachment and socio-cultural aspects of the illness were interpreted, emphasizing the social fact of the Immediate Dream, emotional shock, modern totemism, toxic food as taboo, and medicalization in the sphere of common sense and biomedical system. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS microsocial and macrosocial factors of the participants' experiences contribute to the qualification of oncologic assistance in the public system, assuming the need for specialized interprofessional assistance.