Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Prostate cancer diagnosis utilizes Gleason Scores and the ability to determine what stage the disease is in. PSA and DRA tests will not accurately diagnose cancer, but they can signal a need to have a biopsy in order that the prostate cells may be examined to see if they are cancerous. In some instances, the changes described in sexual or urinary function will lead the patient to his physician, and there he will be fully evaluated. If the doctor suspects prostate cancer, a biopsy is performed.
Needles used in a biopsy are inserted into the prostate, and the health care professional will obtain samples of the tissue. The procedure can cause some pain or discomfort, but it is performed in a short period of time.
Prostate cancer cells look different than normal prostate cells. The amount of difference in the cells, as compared to normal prostate cells, determines the grade of the cancer. If the cancer is of low grade, the cells will look only slightly different than normal. If the cancer is further developed, or a high-grade of cancer, the tumors don’t resemble the normal prostate cells at all. This is the grading system used for the five distinct patterns that are seen in prostate cells, as they change more and more from normal cells. The 1-5 scale represents cells in stage 1 as those who are not yet significantly different from normal cells, all the way to a 5, where the cancer cells barely resemble healthy cells.
When a pathologist examines the cells from your prostate under a microscope, he will assign a scale number to the most common cell pattern, and another grade to the second most common cell pattern. Then he will add the two grades together, and this determines the Gleason score. The Gleason score in general terms is able to predict how aggressive the prostate cancer is, and how the cells will behave. If you have a high Gleason scale number, those cells behave the least like normal cells, and the more aggressive the tumor will tend to be.
This staging determines how extensively the prostate is affected by cancer. Localized cancer means that the disease is basically confined to the prostate only. If the cancer is mostly contained but has started to ease out into the surrounding tissues, it is referred to as locally advanced prostate cancer. If the disease is growing in places outside the prostate, including possibly extending itself to other organs, it is called metastatic cancer.
There are a variety of tests that can help to determine the disease’s stage. Cancers that grow outside the prostate can be detected by X-rays, MRI’s or CT scans. Bone scans will also show these cancers. You cannot use these test results alone, however, because they can’t detect the smaller cancer cell groups, and thus cannot determine what stage the disease is in, or predict what the outcome of the cancer will be.
Metastatic prostate cancer diagnoses can also be determined through imaging studies, and these can often locate cancer cells in the lymph nodes. Cancers that have already spread to other organs will have traveled through the lymph nodes, which also carry cells that fight disease and infection. During biopsy or surgery, they will remove lymph nodes and examine them for cancerous cell presence.
Once your health care professional knows the stage the disease, it can be determined how aggressively the disease will be treated, and how best to attempt to eradicate the disease by the treatment options available.
