ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of the lived experience of having outlook toward self of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving standard therapy. Unstructured interviews were conducted with five Co-researchers. The dates were gathered from verbatim interviews, then the transcripts were analyzed using the procedural steps based of phenomenological approach of Colaizzi. As a result, three in five common meanings in their experiences are the following: 1) Life-oriented with their life because of raising awareness of the end of their life, 2) Being as what they are because of knowing what they were for themselves, 3) Being not isolated because they were isolated. When considered based on the above three common meanings, having outlook toward self must be viewed as a searching one's life as being that it starts at the time of raising awareness of mortality and as a one's positive effort to live fully as oneself in later life. Palliat Care Res 2011; 6(2): 222-226