Abstract
The article is based on a literature review on the concepts suffering and illness put into perspective of patients with incurable cancer. The article is divided into four parts: Illness defined in relation to disease, ideas about illness and suffering based on deductive theories, theories about patients lived experience of illness and suffering, and nurses experience of patients' suffering. The conclusion is that the nature of suffering experiences have not yet been clearly described according to individual groups of patients and that more research concerning suffering needs to be initiated by nurses.
