Purpose: We examine the association of family history and prostatic carcinoma.
Materials and methods: A total of 2,968 consecutive patients referred for prostate cancer detection responded to a questionnaire and underwent transrectal ultrasound examination with or without biopsy.
Results: Of the men 329 (11.1%) had a family history of prostate cancer. No differences were observed between groups with and without a family history with respect to mean patient age, serum prostate specific antigen level or biopsy rate. Prostate cancer was detected in 133 of 329 patients (40.4%) with a family history and 769 of 2,639 (29.1) with no family history (p < 0.001, odds ratio 1.7). No significant differences were observed between cancer patients with or without a family history with respect to mean Gleason score (6.0 versus 6.2), patient age at diagnosis (65.8 versus 66.7) and prostate specific antigen level (16.8 versus 17.1).
Conclusions: Patients with a family history of prostate cancer have a greater risk of the disease. In this select group of patients a positive family history was not associated with an earlier age at cancer diagnosis or a different histological grade of tumor.