Staging Of Prostate Cancer

The staging of prostate cancer basically deals with the size, nature of the cells and extent of the spreading of the tumor. There are two systems used to characterize the stage of prostate tumos: the Jewett-Whitmore system and the TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) system.

In the Jewett-Whitmore system, the cancer is classified into four stages A, B, C and D. It uses the American Urologic staging system. Stages A and B are curable. Stages C and D are more serious cases of tumor spreading. In this system, the severeness of the cancer in each of these stages is shown by assigning grades to each stage. A1 implies a very early stage with confinement only to the prostate, whereas C1 implies a later stage of cancer with a larger amount outside the prostate with spreading confined to the surrounding tissues. D1 implies that the tumor has spread to regional lymph nodes. Biopsies and Imaging tests are used to know the extent of the spread of prostate cancer.

In the TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) system, more specific alphanumeric subcategories are used to characterize the extent of cancer. It separately assesses the tumor(T), lymph nodes(N) and metastasis(M). T1 and T2 in this system are equivalent to stage A and B of the previous system. T3 and and T4 describes later stages of cancer where it has spread to the nearby regions. N1 implies single-node metastasis (less than 2cm across) and is equivalent to Stage D1. M1 implies distant metastasis and is equivalent to D2. This system is used all over the world and gives more information than the Jewett-Whitmore system. For choosing a proper treatment, it is important that the cancer be staged properly using one of these systems.