Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Diagnosis
Your diagnosis and staging are developed by the data collected from your behind-the-scenes cancer team. This team includes your clinician, lab technicians, and pathologists. Each brings with them data and information that gives personal insight into your diagnosis.
Pathologist Report – The pathologist report gives your clinician information about your tissue on a microscopic level to help them further diagnose and stage any cancer present.
Diagnosis – Your clinician gathers all the information available to them from each test to help determine if you have cancer and what kind of cancer it is.
Staging – Once the cancer has been diagnosed, your clinician will stage it according to how far it has progressed, typically by using the TNM system. Often times this can include additional testing to see if the cancer has spread.
Prostate Cancer Staging
Stage 1 – grows slowly, the tumor cannot be felt, low PSA levels
Stage 2 – tumor only found in the prostate, medium/low PSA levels, potential increased risk of the cancer growing and spreading 2a – cancer cells are well-differentiated, larger tumors but contained in the prostate 2b – medium PSA levels, the tumor may be large enough to feel during DRE, cancer cells are moderately differentiated 2c – medium PSA levels, the tumor may be large enough to feel during DRE, cancer cells are poorly differentiated
Stage 3 – the tumor is growing, high PSA levels 3a – cancer has spread to tissue near the prostate 3b – the tumor has grown outside the prostate 3c – cancer cells are poorly differentiated throughout the tumor
Stage 4 – the cancer has spread beyond the prostate 4a – cancer has spread to the lymph nodes in the same area 4b – cancer has spread to other parts of the body
Recurrent – Prostate cancer that comes back after treatment