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In this Article

• What is a tumor?
• What is tumor grade?
• How is tumor grade determined?
• What do the different tumor grades signify?
• Does the same grading scale apply to all tumors?
• Does tumor grade affect a patient's treatment options?
• Tumor Grade At A Glance
• Find a local Doctor in your town
• Tumor Grade Index

Grading systems are different for each type of cancer. For example, pathologists use the Gleason system to describe the degree of differentiation of prostate cancer cells. The Gleason system uses scores ranging from Grade 2 to Grade 10. Lower Gleason scores describe well-differentiated, less aggressive tumors. Higher scores describe poorly differentiated, more aggressive tumors. Other grading systems include the Bloom-Richardson system for breast cancer and the Fuhrman system for kidney cancer.

Doctors use tumor grade and many other factors, such as cancer stage, to develop an individual treatment plan for the patient and to predict the patient's prognosis. Generally, a lower grade indicates a better prognosis (the likely outcome or course of a disease; the chance of recovery or recurrence). However, the importance of tumor grade in planning treatment and estimating a patient's prognosis is greater for certain types of cancers, such as soft tissue sarcoma, primary brain tumors, lymphomas, and breast and prostate cancer. Patients should speak with their doctor about tumor grade and how it relates to their diagnosis and treatment.

• Tumor grade is a system used to classify cancer cells in terms of how abnormal they look under a microscope and how quickly the tumor is likely to grow and spread.
• A pathologist (a doctor who identifies diseases by studying cells under a microscope) determines whether the tumor is benign or malignant. The pathologist also determines the tumor grade.
• Each type of cancer is graded using a different grading system.
• Doctors consider tumor grade and other factors when developing an individual treatment plan for a patient.

Selected References

1. American Joint Committee on Cancer. AJCC Cancer Staging Manual. 6th ed. New York, NY: Springer, 2002.

SOURCE: cancer.gov. Tumor Grade: Questions and Answers.
<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/tumor-grade>