[Prostate cancer: Gleason scores correlation between biopsies and surgical gross specimen]

The Gleason score is a histopronostic criterion which gives an appraisal of prostate cancer aggressiveness and outcomes.

The goal of this retrospective study was to assess the relationship between Gleason scores appreciated on biopsies and later on surgical gross specimen.

During the period of the study, 123 patients benefit of a histological diagnosis of prostate cancer recording Gleason score on biopsies and postsurgical intervention on gross specimen. After analysis of biopsies and for gross specimen the reported Gleason scores vary from 3 to 9 and the mean was 5.9 and 6.1 respectively. There was a good concordance between the Gleason scores for biopsies and gross specimen in about 32.5% of cases. We noted a difference of score of one point in 37.3% of patients and a difference of two points and more in 30% of cases. In 28.4% the Gleason scores were overestimated while in 39% they were underestimated. More than half of the patients' cohort was classified in the group of histologically moderately differentiated cancer. When grouping the patients according to the histological types well, moderately or less differentiated cancers, the Gleason scores concordance for biopsies and for gross specimen change from 32.5% up to 74.8%. The correlation can be considered good for the less differentiated cancers.

Gleason score showed some limits in the appreciation of the prediction. The grouping of patients according to the three distinct histological differentiation groups increases the concordance between the score of Gleason on biopsy specimen and gross specimen but it seems less powerful for cancers well and moderately differentiated cancers.