Defining the Different Stages of Prostate Cancer

After diagnosing prostate cancer, the disease is usually staged and then graded. This is a means of specifying the severity and extent of the prostate cancer. Staging and grading allows medical experts to plan the treatment for the prostate cancer patient. The stage denotes the severity of the disease in terms of how far it has spread. The grade denotes how aggressive the prostate cancer tumor is.

Prostate Cancer Staging System

Doctors use various tests during the prostate cancer staging phase. These include doing an x-ray on the lumbar spine, the pelvis, and the chest. Radionuclitide bone scans and MTI scans are also done on the pelvis. Medical experts use a naming system to categorize types of cancers. T1 is used to indicate a tumor that is confined to the prostate which is not visible or palpable on Transrectal Ultrasound of the Prostate (TRUS). T2 indicates tumor that is visible or palpable on the TRUS yet limited to the prostate. T3 indicates the spread of the cancer away from the prostatic capsule. The T3a is similar to T3 but has extra-capsular spread while T3b indicates the spread of cancer in the seminal vesicles. The T4 indicates prostate cancer that has invaded the wall of the rectum, the bladder neck or the pelvic wall.

N0 means that regional nodes are not involved whereas N1 means that regional node are involved. M0 indicates that there are no remote metastases whereas M1 means that distant metastases are indeed present.

Prostate Cancer Grading System

Grading tries to identify how the prostate cancer appears under the microscope. Medical experts usually use the Gleason grading and scoring system to identify the cancer type. The pattern of the gland is usually studied and compared to a healthy prostate. The Gleason grading system usually assigns a number from one to five. A score of one means that the pattern closely resembles a normal prostate pattern whereas a score of 5 means that the pattern is extremely distorted.

The medical expert finds the two major patterns and combines the score and calculates it out of ten. A Gleason score means that the tumor is aggressive. The higher the score the worse the prognosis is. Patients that have prostate cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs may be curable with radiotherapy or surgery. Those diagnosed with cancer spread to other areas are incurable.

Prostate cancer is a disease that happens too often to men. Advanced stages of the disease prove to be incurable. The best defense that men have is prevention and detection. A healthy lifestyle and regular screening for prostate cancer after the age of fifty are both important.