The reader may refer to pages 97 and 98 for a discussion of

the variable co-morbidity as it was derived from the Index by

the same name. The duration of time since diagnosis re-

ferred to the number of months that had lapsed between the

date of diagnosis of the cancer and the date of the initial

interview with the subject. Closeness to death referred to

the number of months that elapsed between the date of the

initial interview and the date of the subject's death.

 The dependent variables. In order to study the

relationship between these disease variables and the

patient's psychological status, the 13 vulnerability scales

and total vulnerability were treated as the dependent

variables in this analysis. These variables have been

enumerated in previous sections; the reader may refer to

Table 9 for a complete listing.

 Descriptive study. Descriptive information on the

duration of time since diagnosis and the closeness to death

was obtained on the subjects. Measures of central tendency

and dispersion were included. Similar descriptive informa-

tion was obtained for the variable co-morbidity and informa-

tion on the psychosocial variables was reviewed.

 Inferential study. A series of correlation analyses

were carried out to address Hypotheses four, five, and six.

These hypotheses dealt with the relationship between the

disease variables and psychological status. The reader may