You have many treatment choices for prostate cancer. Your choices will depend on things like your age, overall health, and your preferences. They also greatly depend on the cancer itself, such as its size, location, and speed of growth.
Prostate Cancer Treatment: Grading and StagingYou have many treatment choices for prostate cancer. Your choices will depend on things like your age, overall health, and your preferences. They also greatly depend on the cancer itself, such as its size, location, and speed of growth.To help decide on the best treatments for you, your healthcare providers will want to learn as much as they can about your cancer. So you will have tests and imaging scans. You will also have a biopsy. This is when small pieces of tissue are taken from the tumor so they can be checked in a lab. A healthcare provider called a pathologist will look at the cells under a microscope. The pathologist will then give your prostate cancer a grade group and a stage.What is the grade group?The grade group helps gauge how quickly the cancer may grow and spread. It is based on a Gleason score. The Gleason score rates how abnormal the cancer cells look when compared with normal prostate cells. It is made up of 2 numbers from 1 to 5. These numbers represent the 2 most common cell patterns in the tumor.They’re added to get a score. This score can range from 2 to 10. But scores below 6 are rarely used. For example, you may have a Gleason score of 4 plus 3, which equals 7. A score closer to 10 means the cells look more abnormal.Using the Gleason score, your healthcare provider can put your cancer into a grade group from 1 to 5. A grade group 1 cancer has a Gleason score of 6 or less. It is low risk. That means it will likely grow and spread slowly. A grade group 5 cancer, though, has a Gleason score of 9 or 10. It is likely to grow and spread quickly. So more aggressive treatment may be needed.What is staging?Staging is the system healthcare providers use to note how far cancer has spread. It is done on a scale of 1 to 4. Your prostate cancer stage is based on these factors:the size of the tumor; the location of the cancer, specifically if it has spread to your lymph nodes or other parts of your body; your prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level; and the cancer’s grade group. The higher the cancer stage, the more the cancer has grown and spread. This information is very important to know when making treatment decisions.What we have learnedA biopsy is one test used to help plan treatment for prostate cancer. True or false? The answer is "true". During a biopsy, small pieces of the tumor are taken out so they can be tested in a lab.A grade group 1 prostate cancer is a high-risk cancer. True or false? The answer is "false". A grade group 1 cancer is low risk. That means it will likely grow and spread slowly.Staging is done on a scale of 1 to 4. True or false? The answer is "true". The higher the cancer stage, the more the cancer has grown and spread.
Date Last Reviewed: 11/01/2020
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