Table 1.

Characteristics of 99,388 Men Aged 66 to 84 Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 1992–2002 Along with 47435 Men without a Cancer Diagnosis^*

Characteristics		Prostate Cancer	Controls
		n= 99388	n= 47435		p-value#
Age (mean ± SD)		73.6 ± 4.8	73.0 ± 4.9		<0.0001
Ethnicity†	White	83.0%	82.1%		<0.0001
	Black	10.2%	6.1%
	Hispanic	1.7%	2.7%
	Other/Unknown	5.1%	9.1%
Comorbidity‡	MI	1.7%	1.9%		0.0278
	CHF	3.7%	4.9%		<0.0001
	PVD	2.0%	2.5%	a	<0.0001
	Stroke	3.2%	4.3%		<0.0001
	COPD	7.3%	7.7%		0.0044
	Diabetes	9.8%	10.9%		<0.0001
Clinical Stage	T1	26.6%	-
	T2	54.4%	-
	T3	5.4%	-
	T4	5.8%	-
	Unknown	7.8%	-
Cancer Grade	Well differentiated	10.6%	-
	Moderated differentiated	61.2%	-
	Poorly differentiated or undifferentiated	21.3%	-
	Unknown	6.9%	-

^*Both prostate cancer patients and controls had 18 months Medicare Part A & B without HMO.

^†Information on ethnicity is from Medicare data in order to allow comparison with the noncancer controls sample. Medicare data on ethnicity during the 1990's substantially under reported Hispanic and Asian ethnicity [13].

^‡MI = miocardial infarction; CHF = congestive heart failure; PVD = peripheral vascular disease; COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

^#p-values were from either t-test or Chi-square test for the comparisons of characteristics between patients with prostate cancer and controls.