Gleason score - What Does It Mean?

Gleason Score: In its role of assigning a grade to each of the two largest areas of cancer in tissue samples, the Gleason score grading system provides an ascending series of grades.

These grades rise in a scale of one to five, with one indicating that the cancer is present but in the least aggressive form with five being the most aggressive.

An ideal example would be a Gleason score grade three tumors, which seldom display metastases.

In grade four or five cancers, metastases are increasingly common.

The Gleason score is generated by adding the two tissue sample results together. A score of two to four receives a low grade; five through seven is classed as intermediate grades with eight through ten producing the maximum grade.

A low Gleason score tumor, if left untreated will spread at a rate so slow that it should not pose a significant threat to the cancer sufferer. If a higher grade of tumor is diagnosed, then the attending physician will require further info prior to embarking on a suitable treatment course.

The physician will call on his experience to define which "stage” the tumor has arrived at, particularly its volume. To do so, the physician will order two further tests.

The first is known as the TNM test and the other an ABCD rating. Both of these tests are designed to evaluate the tumor’s size and the extent of its spread.

The importance of establishing a staging system like the Gleason score is to define the state of the tumor, if it is “Localized.” “Regional or Metastatic”.

Localized Tumors
Using the TNM method, Stage one tumors, also referred to as T1 tumors are difficult to define as they are invisible. In the ABCD definition method the tumors are regarded as stage "A."

Tumors that can be felt are classed as TNM Stage two or stage B or T2 as long as they are still confined to the prostate gland.

Regional
Tumors that are classed as stage three or C or T3 tumors are ones that have broken through the capsule containing the prostate gland, and may have even invaded the seminal vesicles.

Metastatic
Stage IV, D or N+ or M+. This staging refers to tumors that have spread into adjacent muscles and organs. They may well have reached either the pelvic lymph nodes (N+) or other major organs. (M+).

A patient, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, will be advised on the state of his tumor as well as being offered a range of treatment options from the treating physician. The patient, as well as their immediate family, has to make intelligent decisions about how to handle such a crisis.

Seeking a second opinion does not mean that the initial diagnosis was wrong, more a further look at the disease from a different angle, as well as helping the patient to adjust to the prospect of cancer treatment.

The psychological aspects of being diagnosed with cancer are considerable both for the sufferer and their loved ones. Most towns and cities have a prostate cancer support group.

Psychologists are very much in favor of interaction between men who have experienced prostate disease. This interaction has been known to work wonders both in coping with the diagnosis and openly discussing treatment options.


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