As part of a research study on the relationship between neoplastic personality and disease, twenty-four patients were given intensive psychotherapy after their cancers were diagnosed. Most of the patients, otherwise withdrawn and isolated, were eager to explore their personalities, attempted to make satisfying object relationships, and live relatively full lives. The therapeutic emphasis was on the present rather than future 'dividends'. Although twenty-two of the twenty-four patients died during the course of treatment, the authors felt their work to be worth while. The reluctance of psychotherapists to work with dying patients is attributed to countertransference reactions rather than to objective considerations.