Risk Assessment systems are not intended to replace individualized clinician-patient decision making, but rather to provide a straightforward instrument for facilitating disease risk classification in clinical decision making and in future research.
The classification developed by D’Amico and colleagues is one of the most widely used and is a good starting point for risk assessment. This system uses PSA level (blood test), Gleason grade (microscopic appearance of the cancer cells), and T stage (size of the tumor on rectal exam and/or ultrasound) to group men as low, intermediate, or high-risk.
Low-risk: PSA less than or equal to 10, Gleason score less than or equal to 6, and clinical stage T1-2a
Intermediate risk: PSA between 10 and 20, Gleason score 7, or clinical stage T2b
High-risk: PSA more than 20, Gleason score equal or larger than 8, or clinical stage T2c-3a
Limitations: Does not account for multiple risk factors
Read more and access the risk assessment calculator here on the UCSF site