Cervical cancer is considered an important public health problem today, not only in Brazil, but also in the entire world. This has been responsible for approximately 10% of cancer cases within the female population, which has generated approximately 500 thousand new cases per year, which can be translated into 02 deaths per minute. Looking at this context, the role of a nursing professional in the Family health and strategy (FHS), the primary health care sector, is an indispensable tool for caring, working mainly with promotion and prevention of pathologies, emphasizing at the moment the health of women. This scientific study aimed to describe, through a review of the literature, the importance of the pap smear in the prevention of cervical cancer, focusing on the performance of the nursing team in the FHS. The research was carried out through a systematic review of the literature, the search strategies were the data to the databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Manuals of the Ministry of Health and library of Julio Bordignon, Library of the College of Education and Environment - FAEMA. Through the reading and analysis of the articles, it was noticed that the pap smear of early diagnosis of the disease and concomitant, reduction of the damage to the woman's health, as well as the effective performance of nurses within the FHS once he or she has a more general training, with focus on humanization and health education, which can contribute significantly to the fight against cervical cancer.