Prostate Cancer Staging
If you find yourself diagnosed with prostate cancer
, it is important to note what prostate cancer staging is and what it means.
Prostate cancer staging is used to describe how far your cancer has spread. Once a physical exam has detected a problem, your doctor will order blood work to check your PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen levels. If the PSA test suggests a problem, your doctor may recommend you get a biopsy of the prostate gland. A biopsy is the best way for health care professionals to determine if you have prostate cancer and predict whether it is growing slowly or aggressively. Once a tissue sample has been removed a pathologist looks at the sample and finds abnormalities in cells. A Gleason grade is given to each of the samples looked at under the microscope. The sum of two of the Gleason grades is the Gleason score and will help your doctor determine the chances of the cancer spreading and at what rate. Through this your prostate cancer staging is determined.
The prostate cancer staging then helps to determine what type of treatment options there are for fighting your cancer. The prostate cancer staging classifies the tumor by size, location and extent of the spreading. It is important to know your prostate cancer staging because tumors at different stages respond differently to the different types of treatments. The prostate cancer staging is also effective in determining the prognosis of your cancer.
In conventional prostate cancer staging there are four stages. Stage I indicates that the cancer is small and still within the prostate. Usually a stage I a tumor cannot be felt by a screening exam and are usually found during surgery for other prostate issues. Stage II, the cancer is more advanced with a larger tumor but is still confined to the prostate. Stage II tumors can often be felt during a screening and will usually increase PSA levels in the blood. Stage III, indicates the cancer has spread to the outside of the prostate and has invaded other tissues near the prostate. Stage IV, means that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, nearby organs or tissues including the bladder or rectum, or that it has spread to distant organs such as the bones or lungs.
Urologists also use a prostate cancer staging system called the 2010 TNM staging. This type of prostate cancer staging is based on three different criteria; T-staging, N-staging and M-staging. T-staging refers to the tumors size and whether it has spread to nearby tissues. N-staging defines the tumors metastases to the lymph nodes. M-staging assesses the metastases of distant organs and tissues. Both of these prostate cancer staging systems are effective and allow your health care professional to determine what treatments would prolong your life the best.
by: prostate cancer
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