Prognostic significance of histologic grading in patients with prostate carcinoma who are assessed by the Gleason and World Health Organization grading systems in needle biopsies obtained prior to radiotherapy

Abstract

The equal allocation of patients to subgroups based on the Gleason system helps the clinician to overcome the dilemma of overrepresentation of Grade 2 patients as occurs with WHO grading. The Gleason grading system and, most likely, the two-tiered Gleason grouping appear to result in better prognostic separation of patients referred to radiotherapy for relatively advanced primary tumors. Therefore the authors recommend the routine use of Gleason grading for these patients.