Once a diagnosis of prostate cancer has been made a decision needs to be made for the steps to take next for management and treatment. The decision will depend on a number of factors including:

​

• Gleason score – high (more aggressive), intermediate (Gleason 7), or low grade

• stage of the cancer – localised in the prostate gland or spread to other parts of the body

• level of PSA in the blood and the rate of change of PSA over time (velocity)

• age and general health

• side-effects of treatment

• personal preference.

​

To help with making decisions about treatment, patients can be placed into high, intermediate or low risk groups with respect to likely cancer outcome. This is done using a combination of factors.