Grading adrenal gland cancer

Grading describes how the cancer cells look compared to normal, healthy cells. Knowing the grade gives your healthcare team an idea of how quickly the cancer may be growing and how likely it is to spread. This helps them plan your treatment, such as needing other treatment after surgery. The grade can also help the healthcare team predict future outcomes (prognosis) and how the cancer might respond to treatment.

To find out the grade of adrenal gland cancer, a pathologist looks at a tissue sample from the tumour under a microscope. They look at how different the cells look from normal cells (called differentiation). The main factor used to determine the grade is how often the tumour cells are dividing (measured as the number of mitosis) . This gives them an idea of how fast the tumour is growing. Other factors used to determine the grade include the weight and size of the tumour, whether cancer cells have grown into blood vessels (called vascular invasion) or lymph nodes, and if there are cancer cells in the surgical margin.

Low-grade cancers have cancer cells that are well differentiated. The cells are abnormal but look a lot like normal cells and are arranged a lot like normal cells. Lower-grade cancers tend to grow slowly and are less likely to spread.

High-grade cancers have cancer cells that are poorly differentiated or undifferentiated. The cells don't look like normal cells and are arranged very differently. Higher-grade cancers tend to grow more quickly and are more likely to spread than low-grade cancers.