The standard in grading for prostate cancer is the Gleason score, which is obtained after a biopsy by adding together the two most common cell types seen in the prostate gland. The score runs from 2 to 10, and the higher the number the worse the prognosis. Except that most people fall in a small range of that, with a Gleason score of 6 being on the low side.

The Gleason score is obtained by taking samples of the prostate and seeing what the first two most common types of cells are, and grading them from 1 to 5. For example, if the first most common types of cells seen in the samples are a mixture of cancer and prostate cells, then the urologist might assign a grade of 4. If the second most common type are almost all prostate cells, he might assign a grade of 2. Adding these together then gives the Gleason score: 6 in this case. The higher the Gleason score (up to 10), the worse the cancer prognosis.

In practice, however, almost all Gleason scores ending up 6 to 8. Anything lower than this has probably not been detected yet, and anything higher than this has probably already caused significant health problems. Some doctors are trying to come up with better tests that add, for example, a third grade. So you would have a Gleason score of 6 + 1. Also, it must be kept in mind that Gleason is subjective; each urologist may give a different Gleason score to the same patient.

At any rate, since most Gleason scores are 6, 7, or 8, then a Gleason score of 6 is on the low side. Depending on other symptoms, your age, the extent of the cancer, the urologist’s opinion, etc, the only “treatment” you may end up doing is just watchful waiting: keeping a close eye on it but not actually doing anything, as sometimes the treatment can be worse than the disease.

But this of course can vary tremendously from one person to the next, and just the Gleason score alone is not always enough of the picture to make a complete treatment profile.