Donald F. Gleason (November 20, 1920 – December 28, 2008) was an American physician and
pathologist
Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...
, best known for devising the "
Gleason score
The Gleason grading system is used to help evaluate the prognosis of men with prostate cancer using samples from a prostate biopsy. Together with other parameters, it is incorporated into a strategy of prostate cancer staging which predicts pr ...
" which predicts the aggressiveness of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
in patients. He was a former chief of pathology at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, and received three degrees from and taught at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
.
Early life
Gleason was born in
Spencer, Iowa
Spencer is a city in the state of Iowa, United States, and the county seat of Clay County. It is located at the confluence of the Little Sioux and Ocheyedan rivers. The population was 11,325 in the 2020 census, an increase from 11,317 in 2000. ...
, though he grew up in
Litchfield, Minnesota
Litchfield is a city in and the county seat of Meeker County, Minnesota, Meeker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,624 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Immigration to the county was slow until the St. Pa ...
, where his father, Fred Gleason, ran a hardware store, and his mother, Ethel, was a schoolteacher. He attended the University of Minnesota, and received his bachelor's degree, M.D., and Ph.D. from that institution. He entered the
U.S. Army Medical Corps, serving an internship at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1807, it comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States ...
and training as a resident in pathology at the VA hospital in Minneapolis.
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]
Career and test development
Gleason remained at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1962, Dr. George Mellinger, the hospital's chief of
urology
Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...
, who was administering a cooperative research project involving fourteen hospitals, asked Gleason to develop a standardized pathological testing system to measure the development of prostate cancer. At the time, no single system existed to measure the speed at which prostate cancer spreads, nor was there a single system to describe the architecture of prostate cancer cells as seen under a microscope. While many classifications existed, but they were in practice difficult to apply, and pathologists would invent their own. This lack of a single standard led to confusion in patients' treatment and difficulties in evaluation of potential new treatments.
Gleason's technique, which he published in the journal ''Cancer Chemotherapy Reports'' in 1966, focused on two details of the architecture of the cancer cells, and assigned a score of one to five to each attribute. Thus, any given patient could have a score of between two and ten——the higher the score, the more aggressive the cancer, and the lower the chance of survival. Gleason found the score directly related to survival rates in a study of 270 patients, which was the basis of his journal report. Subsequently, a study of 4,000 patients confirmed the relationship.
Dr. Akhouri Sinha, a colleague of Gleason's for forty years, described the scoring system as "comprehensive, yet simple so that the grading system can be used by pathologists, clinicians and scientists throughout the world".
The scoring was adopted slowly until 1987, when several leading experts in the field recommended its use in all scientific publications regarding prostate cancer. The test became even more widely utilized following a surge in prostate cancers identified through a blood test, the
prostate-specific antigen
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), also known as gamma-seminoprotein or kallikrein-3 (KLK3), P-30 antigen, is a glycoprotein enzyme encoded in humans by the ''KLK3'' gene. PSA is a member of the kallikrein-related peptidase family and is secreted b ...
(PSA) test.
, according to Dr Bruce Roth, a professor at
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
, "Every prostate cancer patient knows his Gleason score." Roth noted that it was remarkable that the Gleason score remained the standard in the profession, despite millions of dollars spent on attempting to develop molecular standards in an attempt to displace it.
Gleason rose to become chief of pathology at the medical center, and also taught at the University of Minnesota, with which the center is affiliated.
He retired in 1986. In 2001, he received both the American Urological Association's Presidential Citation Award and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota.
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Personal and later life
Gleason was for many years a resident of
Richfield, Minnesota
Richfield is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling. An inner ring suburb of Minneapolis, it is bordered by Minneapolis to the north, Minn ...
. He died of a heart attack on December 28, 2008 in
Edina, Minnesota
Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota.
Edina began as a small farming and mil ...
and was survived by his wife, Nancy (to whom he was married for 62 years) and three daughters, Donna, Sue, and Ginger.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleason, Donald
1920 births
2008 deaths
University of Minnesota Medical School alumni
American urologists
American pathologists
United States Army Medical Corps officers
United States Army personnel of World War II
People from Spencer, Iowa
People from Litchfield, Minnesota
People from Richfield, Minnesota
Military personnel from Iowa
Military personnel from Minnesota