OBJECTIVETo explore the basic features of the prostate carcinoma Gleason grading system of the International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP).

METHODSWe analyzed the means and proportions of the Gleason score (GS), primary grade (PG), secondary grade (SG) and third grade (TG) of 667 cases of prostate carcinoma.

RESULTSThe means of GS, PG, SG and TG were 7.06 +/- 1.10, 3.53 +/- 0.66, 3.53 +/- 0.72 and 4.30 +/- 0.96, respectively. The cases with GS 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 accounted for 0.4% (3/677), 37.2% (252/677), 34.4% (233/677), 13.7% (93/677), 12.0% (81/677) and 2.2% (15/677), respectively; those with GS < or = 6 and > or = 7 constituted 37.7% (255/677) and 62.3% (422/677); those with GS3 + 3, 4 + 3 and 3 + 4 made up 37.2% (252/677), 19.2% (130/677) and 15.2% (103/677); and the TG cases held 10.3% (70/677), including 30.0% (21/70) of grade 3, 10% (7/70) of grade 4 and 60.0% (42/70) of grade 5.

CONCLUSIONOur study showed a high proportion of GS, a low proportion of GS < or = 6, and a high proportion of GS > or = 7 in the ISUP prostate carcinoma Gleason grading system. TG of GS needs to be further understood.