What is the Gleason score?

Gleason's score is a numeric degree assigned to the prostate cancer after being evaluated by a pathologist under the microscope in the laboratory. Gleason's score is used to calculate basic information about cancer to determine how serious it is and the development of the treatment plan. Many other cancer details are included in the pathology report, so the medical team has a full picture of the situation.

For the determination of Gleason score, the tissue sample from the prostate is examined by a microscopically pathologist. The pathologist identifies the area of ​​abnormal cell growth and finds the primary and secondary areas of cancer. First, the primary area is checked and its appearance is compared with the Gleason Scale system to determine where it falls on a scale of one to five. Then the secondary area is examined and introduced from one to five. Gleason score is calculated by adding these two numbers and will range from two to 10.

Gleason scale,Named for Dr. Donald Gleason, it was developed at the age of 60 and uses the appearance of cells to evaluate cancer. The scale runs from one, well -differentiated cells that indicate slow -growing cancer or even normal prostate, after five poorly differentiated cells that indicate that cancer is aggressive. One and two on the scale are rare because prostate cancer usually does not identify until at least part of the scale of three or four.

The lower the Gleason score, the better the prognosis. In some cases, the doctor may determine that cancer grows so slowly that treatment may not be immediately necessary, focusing on patient monitoring on signs of changes. The high score of Gleason, such as nine, suggests that cancer is aggressive and grows rapidly and that treatment must be crucial and equally aggressive.

Gleason's score cannot be used to create a treatment plan or to decide how to treat cancer. There is a series in discussion on treatment optionsDA factors for a medical team and patient. For example, someone with a high Gleason score that is already dying from another state could decide to refuse treatment, provided they did not bring much other quality of life and that the strict treatment could be very unpleasant.