General anesthesia: Treatment that decreases or eliminates pain, usually associated with a surgical procedure, in which the patient is put to sleep during surgery.
Gland: (1) Organ that secretes hormones or fluids. Example: prostate, breast, adrenal gland. (2) Microscopic structures composed of epithelial cells that secrete hormones or fluids. Example: prostatic glands produced prostate-specific antigen.
Gleason score: The most common method of grading prostate cancer based on the Veterans Administration Cooperative Urologic Research Group study from the 1960s and 1970s; named after its creator, retired pathologist Donald F. Gleason. Gleason score refers to the combination of the two most common patterns present in the cancer, the primary and secondary patterns. The pathologist determines the grades by studying the cancer tissue specimen and assigns a primary grade between 1 (well differentiated) and 5 (poorly differentiated) and then adds the two grades together to produce the Gleason sum or score. For example, if a pathologist assigns the primary pattern a grade of 3 and the secondary pattern a grade of 4, the combined Gleason score would be 3 + 4 = 7. The lowest grade cancer is Gleason score 2 (1 + 1 = 2), and the highest grade is 10 (5 + 5 = 10).
Grade: Measure of cancer aggressiveness based on the microscopic analysis of cancer . It is determined by the pathologist according to the shape, size, and arrangement of the cancer cells in the tissue specimen. Low grade cancer, also known as well differentiated cancer, resembles normal cells but shows some abnormalities. The higher grade the cancer is, the more aggressive and malignant it is. In poorly differentiated cancer, the tumor cells and glands form shapeless sheets of cells.
Growth Factor: Protein that promotes growth of cells.
Gynecomastia: Non-cancerous male breast enlargement, usually resulting from hormone therapy.