Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group
(619) 890-8447

Treatment selection is based on accurate staging. Prostate cancer naturally divides into five major stages and each with three sub-stages. Each major stage is assigned a different Shade of Blue—Sky, Teal, Azure, Indigo or Royal.

Patients frequently ask their physicians, “Am I stage A, B, C or D,” without realizing that the original purpose of a lettering system was simply to provide a clinical stage that could guide urologists in the selection of candidates for surgery.  While clinical stage matters, a combination of PSA level, clinical stage plus the Gleason grade is a better way to assess disease status.  So rather than using clinical stage alone, it’s best to incorporate all three factors together—PSA, Gleason and stage—to break prostate cancer down into five broad categories called the STAGES OF BLUE.