Age was significantly related to the year of surgery, with the more recently treated patients being younger than less recently treated patients (P<0.001). After controlling for the year of surgery, the younger men had smaller prostates, fewer high-grade tumors on biopsy, and less lymph node metastasis, but a greater percentage of cores with cancer. On multivariate analysis, men 50 years old or younger had significantly lower recurrence rates than did the older men