Is Cancer Confined to the Prostate Gland?

The following article is excerpted from PSA Rising - Prostate Cancer Survivor (News, Info & Support) in the hope readers may become more informed. I would encourage all our readers to visit the author's website.

These tables may help you and your doctor to predict the chance of organ confined prostate cancer.

Find the table headed with your PSA level. Next, read down the left column to your Gleason score. Then read across to the column headed by your clinical stage (e.g T2a).

Where the row for your Gleason meets the column for your clinical stage is a number. This number, e.g. 66, is a percentage - 66%. Your number gives you a rough idea of how many chances out of a hundred a patient with your PSA level, Gleason score and Clinical Stage has of organ confined disease.


The higher this number, the better. Remember you're NOT an "average" number!

PSA 0.0 - 4.0 ng/mL

Clinical Stage___ T1a ---- T1b ---- T1c ---- T2a ---- T2b ---- T2c ---- T3a

Gleason Score ----% Probability (that cancer is organ-confined)

-- 2-4 ---------------------90 ------80 -------89 -------81 -------72 -------77

-- 5 ------------------------82 ------66 -------81 -------68 -------57 -------62 -------40

-- 6 ------------------------78 ------61 -------78 -------64 -------52 -------57 -------35

-- 7 ----------------------------------43 -------63 -------47 -------34 -------38 -------19

-- 8-10 ------------------------------31 -------52 -------36 -------24 -------27

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PSA 4.1 - 10.0 ng/mL

Clinical Stage___ T1a ---- T1b ---- T1c ---- T2a ---- T2b ---- T2c ---- T3a

Gleason score --------------------------% Probability

--2-4 ---------------------84 ---- --70 -------83 -------71 -------61 ------66 --------43

--5 ------------------------72 -------53 -------71 --------55 ------43 ------49 --------27

--6 ------------------------67 -------47 -------67 -------51 -------38 ------43 --------23

--7 ------------------------49 -------29 -------49 -------33 -------22 ------25 --------11

--8-10 --------------------35 ------18 --------37 -------23 -------14 ------15 ---------6

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PSA 10.1 - 20.0 ng/mL

Clinical Stage___ T1a ---- T1b ---- T1c ---- T2a ---- T2b ---- T2c ---- T3a

Gleason score ---------------------------% Probability

--2-4 ----------------------76 ------58 ------75 -------60 -------48 --------53

--5 -------------------------61 ------40 ------60 -------43 -------32 --------36 ------18

--6------------------------------------33 -------55 -------38 -------26 --------31 ------14

--7 -------------------------33 ------17 ------35 -------22 -------13 ---------15 -------6

--8-10 --------------------------------9 -------23 -------14 ------- 7 ----------8 --------3

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PSA above 20.0 ng/mL

Clinical Stage___ T1a ---- T1b ---- T1c ---- T2a ---- T2b ---- T2c ---- T3a

Gleason score ---------------------------% Probability

--2-4 -------------------------------38 --------58 -------41 ------29

--5 ----------------------------------23 --------40 -------26 ------17 --------19 ------8

--6 ----------------------------------17 --------35 -------22 ------13 --------15 ------6

--7 ----------------------------------------------18 --------10 -------5 ----------6 ------2

--8-10 -------------------------------3 --------10 --------5 --------3 ----------3 ------1
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