Cancer staging helps in estimating the patient`s prognosis and in deciding on treatment. If tests show the cancer is likely to have spread, imaging and other tests are done to see the extent of the cancer and to assign it a stage.

Stage 1: Cancer is confined to a small area of the prostate.

Stage 2: Cancer is confined to the prostate but has spread within it, patient had a high Gleason score, had a high PSA level, or can be felt.

Stage 3: Cancer has spread outside the prostate and may have spread to the seminal vesicles, but has not spread anywhere else.

Stage 4. Cancer has spread to nearby tissues (other than the seminal vesicles), or to the lymph nodes, or to distant sites in the body.