OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to assess the characteristics and health care resource utilization of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. METHODS: A large US administrative retrospective claims database was used to identify patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and were taking treatment in the USA from January 2001 to December 2013 were included in the study. All patients were ≥ 18 years of age and continuously enrolled in the same health plan at least for a year. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were performed on the data. RESULTS: There were a total of 19,279 patients that met the study inclusion criteria. Of these, 6,359 (33.0%) patients were <65 years of age (adult) and 12,920 (67.0%) ≥65 years of age (geriatric). There was a significant difference (p<0.05) in the mean ages of two groups (59.02±4.99 vs 74.55±6.55 years). There were more patients in adult group in the MidWest (28.5% vs 23.6%) and South (38.3% vs 36.4%) regions with a significant difference between the groups (p<0.05). On average, patients were continuously enrolled in the same health plan for 65.37±35.91 vs 65.80±32.84 months (p>0.05) and submitted 366.85±381.92 vs 492.37±431.42 claims during the study period (p<0.05). Patients on average were charged by the provider $763.84±3003.48 vs $595.56±2207.71, the allowed amount by the health plan was $343.75±1496.33 vs $270.81±1380.54 and the actual paid amount by the health plan was $309.67±1294.90 vs $165.08±768.48 with a significant difference between the groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the patients were geriatric. On average, geriatric patients were charged less by the provider and actual paid amount by the health plan was less compared to adult patients for the treatment of prostate cancer.