Staging and grading for prostate cancer

Once a definite diagnosis of cancer has been made and your healthcare team has the information it needs, the cancer will be given a stage and a grade.

The cancer stage describes the tumour size and tells whether it has spread beyond the place where it started to grow. For prostate cancer, there are four stages.

Stage	Description
1	Cancer is found in the prostate only.
2	Cancer is larger than stage 1, but is still found only in the prostate.
3	Cancer has spread outside the prostate but not to nearby organs.
4	Cancer has spread to nearby organs, lymph nodes or distant parts of the body.

To find out the grade of a tumour, the biopsy sample is examined under a microscope. A grade is given based on how the cancer cells look and behave compared to normal cells. This can give your healthcare team an idea of how quickly the cancer may be growing and how likely it is to spread.

For prostate cancer, the grade is usually given as a Gleason score from 2 to 10. A low Gleason score means the cancer cells are similar to normal prostate cells. A high Gleason score means the cancer cells are very different from normal cells. Most prostate cancer tumours are moderate grade.

Grade	Gleason score	Description
1	2–4	Low grade – slow growing, less likely to spread
2	5–7	Moderate grade – grow slightly faster than grade 1 and may spread
3	8–10	High grade – tend to grow quickly, more likely to spread

It is important to know the stage and grade of the cancer and your PSA level. This information helps you and your healthcare team choose the best treatment for you.

More information on staging and grading of prostate cancer in the Canadian Cancer Encyclopedia

Last modified on: 24 August 2010