The prostate cancer Gleason Score is the sum of the two Gleason grades. After a prostate biopsy, a pathologist examines the samples of prostate cancer cells to see how the patterns, sizes, and shapes are different from healthy prostate cells. Cancerous cells that appear similar from healthy prostate called well-differentiated while cancerous cells that appear very different from healthy prostate cells are called poorly-differentiated. The pathologist assigns one Gleason grade to the most common pattern of prostate cancer cells and then assigns a second Gleason grade to the second-most common pattern of prostate cancer cells. These two Gleason grades indicate prostate cancer’s aggresiveness, which indicates how quickly prostate cancer may extend out of the prostate gland. How aggressive a case of prostate cancer will help determine what treatment may or may not be appropriate for a patient.
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