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Dr. Donald F. Gleason, the Minnesota pathologist who developed
the Gleason score that is now used almost universally to define the
aggressiveness of prostate cancers and predict the likely outcome,
died December 28 of a heart attack at his home in Edina, Minn. He
was 88. Fifty years ago, there was no uniform system for determining
the grade of prostate tumors or cancer. Each pathologist pretty much
used his own system, which made comparing research results among
different groups nearly impossible.
At that time, Gleason was an unknown, junior-grade pathologist at
the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Then, in 1962, the hospital’s
chief of urology, Dr. George Mellinger, asked him to develop a
standardized rating system for tumors to ease communication between
groups at 14 hospitals that Mellinger was administering in a
cooperative research project on prostate cancer. Gleason examined
biopsy samples from more than 300 patients at the medical center and
eventually defined five representative pictures that were
characteristic of virtually all the patients. He then sent the
pictures to the National Institute of Health statisticians who had
all the information about the patients. These statisticians found a
surprisingly strong correlation between the pictures and the
patients’ death rates.
The system was subsequently verified in a study of more than 4000
patients. Despite this corroboration, the Gleason Score was not
widely accepted until, in 1987, leading authorities in urology and
urological oncology sent a letter to the editor of the Journal of
Urology urging that the Gleason Score be applied uniformly in all
publications on prostate cancer. Their recommendation was adopted,
and the scale quickly came into widespread use. Gleason, who spent
his entire career at the University of Minnesota and the affiliated
VA Hospital, formally retired a year later.
However, his scientific interest continued, and in 2002, he and a
colleague, Dr. Akhouri Sinha, developed an enzyme test that they
hoped would help identify which prostate tumors would progress most
rapidly. In addition to Nancy, his wife of 62 years, Dr. Gleason is
survived by three daughters, Donna O’Neill of Annandale, Va., Sue
Anderson of Burnsville, MN, and Ginger Venable of Eden Prairie, MN.;
a sister, Barbara Jarl of St. Paul, MN.; and nine grandchildren.
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