illness have a bearing on psychological adjustment and

observed psychological characteristics.

 The purpose of this study was to explore the relation-

ship between psychosocial variables and the survival of

elderly cancer patients when important biological, disease,

and medical variables are controlled. This control was

achieved by the methods used to determine the survival ex-

pected for individuals when these variables are considered.

Four research questions were initially posed. They focused

on the relationship between psychosocial variables and sur-

vival and on the extent to which the variability in survival

could be explained by a set of psychosocial variables. In

the process of interviewing individuals the influence of two

aspects of the illness on the individuals' psychological

status was observed. Both the length of time since the

diagnosis and the closeness to death at the time of the

interview appeared to influence psychological status.

Because the research methodology had not adequately con-

trolled for these disease variables, three additional

questions were formulated to study the relationships.

 The report of the methods of this study begins with the

 statement of the research questions and hypotheses and a

 description of the design of the study. These sections are

 followed by information related to the subjects, instruments,

 procedure, and data analysis. This information is given in