Grading of Prostate Cancer
What is “grading”?
A part of the diagnosis that takes a look at the cancer cells at a microscopic level to determine how fast they grow and spread. The cancer cells are compared to normal cells and given a grade known as a Gleason score. This helps your doctor decide the aggressiveness of the tumor and how it should be treated.
The Gleason system is a grading of the cancer cells and interpreted by numbers on a scale of 2 to 10. A lower number means the cells are slower growing. A higher number means the cells are growing faster and more likely to spread to others areas in the body outside the prostate.
Scores mean:
- Grades under 4 (low score) mean that the cancer cells look fairly similar to your normal cells, and the cancer is likely to be less aggressive.
- Grades 5 to 7 (middle range) This means that the cancer cells do not look like normal cells, and are more likely to be aggressive and grow faster.
- Grades 8 to 10 (high score) indicate that the cancer cells are more likely to be very aggressive in growth.
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