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gleason score
Definitions related to gleason score:
  • A system of grading prostate cancer tissue based on how it looks under a microscope. Gleason scores range from 2 to 10 and indicate how likely it is that a tumor will spread. A low Gleason score means the cancer tissue is similar to normal prostate tissue and the tumor is less likely to spread; a high Gleason score means the cancer tissue is very different from normal and the tumor is more likely to spread.
    NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
    U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
  • In men with prostate cancer, the Gleason score provides a rough estimate of how fast the cancer is growing.
    Harvard Dictionary of Health Terms
    Harvard Medical Publishing, 2011
  • (gleason score for prostate cancer) The score derived from universally embraced prostate cancer grading system developed by Dr. Donald F. Gleason in 1977. The system provides a reproducible description of the glandular architecture of prostate tissue to which a pathologist assigns a score depending primarily on the microscopic patterns of cancerous glands and cell morphology. The system correlates well with behavior at the extremes: Gleason 1+1 tumors are the most well differentiated, slowly growing and rarely spread; Gleason 4+5 tumors are the most poorly differentiated, often widely metastatic at the time of diagnosis. In the commoner intermediate grade tumors, however, behavior is extremely variable.
    NCI Thesaurus
    U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
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