Bladder cancer grading
Bladder cancer grading is about how the cancer cells look under a microscope compared with normal cells. With muscle-invasive or advanced bladder cancer grading does not affect your treatment. With non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer grading is used to help your doctor plan your treatment.
Bladder cancer grades are:
- grade 1 – the cancer cells look very similar to normal bladder cells, they are usually slow-growing and are less likely to spread
- grade 2 – the cancer cells look less like normal cells and are slightly faster growing
- grade 3 – the cancer cells look very different to normal cells and usually grow more quickly.
Your doctor may combine the stage and grade of the tumour when talking about your results. For example, they may say you have a TaG1 tumour. This means it is stage Ta and a grade 1 tumour.
Doctors may also use another bladder cancer grading system:
- low-grade – the cancer cells are slow-growing and are less likely to spread
- high-grade – the cancer cells grow more quickly and are more likely to spread. Carcinoma in situ (CIS) is always classed as high-grade.
Your doctor may combine the 2 grading systems.
