Table 1.

Selected characteristics of Ashkenazi Jewish prostate cancer cases and controls

Characteristics	Cases (n = 979)		Controls (n = 1,251)		p*
	n	%	n	%
Age at participation (years)					0.01
< 50	11	1.1	12	1.0
50 – 59	146	14.9	284	22.7
60 – 69	345	35.2	382	30.5
70 – 79	365	37.3	427	34.1
≥ 80	112	11.4	146	11.7
First-degree family history of prostate cancer					<0.0001
Yes	276	28.2	179	14.3
No	703	71.8	1072	85.7
Smoking status					0.93
Non smoker	427	43.6	543	43.4
Former smoker	523	53.4	668	53.4
Current smoker	24	2.5	33	2.6
Missing	5	0.5	7	0.6
Education					0.90
High school or less	63	6.4	86	6.9
Post secondary/some college	155	15.8	193	15.4
College degree	259	26.5	320	25.6
Graduate/professional degree	493	50.4	645	51.5
Missing	9	0.9	7	0.6
History of BPH					<0.0001
Yes	323	33.0	538	43.1
No	616	62.9	682	54.5
Unknown	40	4.1	31	2.5
Prostate cancer screening					<0.0001
PSA and DRE	933	95.3	1127	90.1
DRE only	2	0.2	109	8.7
None	44	4.5	15	1.2
Age at prostate cancer diagnosis (years)
< 50	27	2.8
50 – 59	242	24.7
60 – 69	443	45.3
70 – 79	234	23.9
≥ 80	33	3.4
Reason for prostate cancer diagnosis
Abnormal PSA	741	73.1
Abnormal DRE	123	12.1
Symptoms	25	2.5
TURP for BPH	15	1.5
Other procedures	57	5.6
Unknown	18	1.8
Gleason score
2 – 4	88	9.0
5 – 6	456	46.6
7	243	24.8
8 – 10	115	11.7
Missing	77	7.9
Aggressive prostate cancerξ
Yes	484	49.4
No	435	44.4
Missing	60	6.1

^*Chi-square p-value

^ξAggressive prostate cancer was characterized as having either a Gleason score of 7–10, or at least two of the following characteristics documented on the pathology report: tumor invasiveness, tumor present at resection margins, prostate capsule invasion, seminal vesicle involvement, or lymph node involvement

Abbreviations: BPH – Benign prostatic hyperplasia; PSA – Prostate specific antigen; DRE – Digital rectal examination; TURP – Transurethral resection of the prostate