Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
A prostate cancer screening is the first step in diagnosing prostate cancer. You are encouraged to ask your health care provider if you should have a prostate cancer screening. Diagnosing prostate cancer in its early stages may make it easier to treat, and sometimes only active monitoring may be necessary.
During a screening, a health care provider usually:
- Gently inserts a gloved and lubricated finger into the rectum and exams the prostate gland,checking for abnormalities in texture, shape, and size.
- Carefully draws blood and analyzes it for PSA, a natural substance produced by the prostate gland.
Prostate gland abnormalities and/or high PSA levels may suggest prostate cancer is present and the healthcare provider will order more tests to help make a formal diagnosis.
The prostate cancer specialists across our NJ facilities are pleased to know how to conduct all of the evaluations necessary to pinpoint whether or not you have prostate cancer—and, if so, to what extent.
A biopsy is often used to diagnose the disease. This involves removing a small piece of tissue and examining it under a microscope. A core needle biopsy is the most common way to look for prostate cancer, and it takes only about 10 minutes. During the test, the area is numbed with an anesthetic prior to the insertion of an ultrasound probe into the rectum. That creates images on a computer, guiding the doctor to collect samples. A pathologist will review the samples and then assign a grade if cancer cells are found.
The grading system for prostate cancer is called the Gleason score. It uses numbers 1 to 5 to show how much the tissue looks like or does not look like normal prostate tissue. A grade is given to each of two areas of the prostate that have the most cancer cells.
The grades are:
- Grade 1: The tissue with cancer cells looks a lot like normal prostate tissue.
- Grades 2 to 4: The tissue looks in between normal and very abnormal.
- Grade 5: The tissue looks very abnormal.
The grades from both are added together to tabulate the Gleason score, which will be between 2 and 10. The higher the Gleason score, the more likely the cancer will grow and spread.
Gleason scores are:
- Gleason score of 6 or less: This is low-grade cancer.
- Gleason score of 7: This is medium-grade cancer.
- Gleason scores of 8 to 10: This is high-grade cancer.
If your biopsy report shows you have prostate cancer, it might show both the Gleason score and the grade group.
Other Prostate Cancer Results
In some cases, a biopsy does not find any cancer when there is cancer. This is called a false negative. This might happen if the biopsy misses areas with cancer. Your cancer specialist may tell you to get another biopsy if he or she thinks the test results may be wrong.
A biopsy may include other results. A pathologist may report that cells are abnormal but are not cancerous. If you have any of these, your cancer specialist may watch your prostate health more closely and order regular prostate cancer screenings. He or she may also do a second biopsy.
Prostate Cancer Treatment
As previously mentioned, it is always best to diagnose prostate cancer in its early stages. Doing so may make it much easier to treat. Radiation therapy may be used to kill cancer cells or surgery may be performed to remove the prostate gland and surrounding cancerous tissues and lymph nodes. In some cases, treatment may not be needed, and cancer may only need to be actively surveilled through regular prostate cancer screenings. Please talk to your cancer specialist about detection methods and practices that will be best for you.
To contact one of New Jersey’s best prostate cancer specialists call
844-CANCERNJ or
844-226-2376.