Risk of Postoperative Up Staging or Upgrading among Men with Low Risk Familial Prostate Cancer

PURPOSE: We investigated whether men with biopsy verified, low grade cancer and a family history of lethal or advanced prostate cancer are at particularly high risk for harboring undetected high grade disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Upgrading and up staging of prostate cancer are common after prostatectomy. In a nationwide population based cohort we identified 6,854 men with low risk prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy. Among these men 1,739 (25%) had a history of prostate cancer in a first-degree relative and 289 (4%) had a first-degree relative with lethal or advanced prostate cancer. RESULTS: Compared to men with no familial occurrence of prostate cancer, the odds ratio for the risk of up staging among men with a familial occurrence of high risk or lethal prostate cancer was 1.06 (95% CI 0.76-1.47). The corresponding odds ratio for upgrading was 1.17 (0.91-1.50). CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between family history of prostate cancer and up staging or upgrading after radical prostatectomy.