This article discusses the issue of social protection against the demands presented in the treatment of children and adolescents in Brazil. It aims to problematize the advances and limits of the Brazilian social protection system in face of the social demands arising from the treatment of children and adolescents that go beyond the specific limits of health care. It is a qualitative study that was structured based on the analysis of official documents, Laws, Decrees, Ordinances and Policies and the literature destined to children and adolescents in cancer treatment whose incapacitating consequences produce social demands that impact, above all, family life. The paper presents social policies as a fundamental resource for treatment, considering the demand for income and displacement, in order to enable an effective health care. However, the reflections indicate that there is now a retraction of social policies by the State that was expressed in the focus and transfer of responsibilities of the State to other sectors of civil society.