Cancer grading
While staging measures how much a cancer has grown and spread, cancer grading is based on the characteristics of the cancer cells themselves. Grading helps doctors to understand how the cancer might develop in the future.
Doctors grade a cancer by looking at a sample of its cells under a microscope and studying their appearance and features. This enables them to see how abnormal the cells are – and therefore how aggressive they are and how quickly they might spread.
Grading systems may differ for specific cancers but generally run from “low grade” for slow-growing, less aggressive cells to “high grade” for very abnormal-looking, fast-growing cells that are more likely to spread quickly. In some cancers, grading is not used at all.
