An excellent introduction for all those coming to the subject for the first time. New material has been added to the second edition and the original six chapters have been modified. The previous edition sold 9500 copies world wide since its release in 1996. Based on numerous courses given by the author to students and researchers in the health sciences and is written with such readers in mind. Provides a ''user-friendly'' layout and includes numerous illustrations and exercises. Written in such a way so as to enable readers learn directly without the assistance of a classroom instructor. Throughout, there is an emphasis on presenting each new topic backed by real examples of a survival analysis investigation, followed up with thorough analyses of real data sets.