[Body and finitude--listening to suffering as a working tool in an oncological institution].

Based on the day-to-day care of patients in the Pain Clinic of a Brazilian cancer hospital (INCA), this article seeks to examine the consequences upon the psychic dimension of the fact of pain being intimately linked to the body. Almost always profoundly affected by the illness, the concept of the subject's own body deeply modifies this identification. This not only causes suffering, but also prejudices oncological treatment.