The aim of this paper is to characterize the struggle of family systems facing a crisis caused by their children’s cancer. The author refers to a qualitative research carried out on a group of adolescent patients and their parents in oncology, hematology and pediatric transplantation wards in one of clinical pediatric hospitals. The research points to the fact that the diagnosis of cancer is not only a critical event in the child’s life but also in the life of its family. It is the moment when all the family members adopt strategies of coping with the difficult situation and mobilize all their energy. Regretfully, the passing time and the emerging additional difficulties resulting from the disease push the energy beyond the point of recovery and prove the strategies to be inadequate. Thus the family finds itself at the brink of a deep crisis. As the members of the family are unable to act under continuous pressure, the family undergoes serious disorganization leading in many cases to its disintegration and thus interfering with the development of the individuals who belong to the family system. According to research results, one of the reasons for the above threats to families in crisis caused by their child’s cancer is lack of social support or its inadequacy with respect to the family’s concrete needs.

Key words: neoplastic disease, child, family, crisis.