A method for displaying within a display area a symmetric anatomical structure comprising two sub-structures that are substantially symmetrical to each other, wherein the anatomical structure is a lung and the sub-structures are the left and right lungs and wherein the lung is comprised within a 3D volumetric dataset comprising a stack of slices (302, 304, 306, 208, 310), the method comprising: segmenting parenchyma of the lung from the 3D volumetric data set to obtain a binary volumetric data set in which voxels contributing to the parenchyma of the lung have a first value and voxels not contributing to the parenchyma of the lung have a different second value; processing the binary volumetric dataset to determine a separation position in between the left and right lungs, the processing comprising generating a profile of the lung, which corresponds to a histogram of the number of voxels contributing to the parenchyma of the lung as a function of an x-position in the binary volumetric dataset, and determining the separation position between two peaks of the profile, automatically calculating a zoom-factor (210, 218, 220) for the lung for each slice of the stack of slices based upon the display area, wherein said automatically calculating a zoom-factor comprises automatically calculating a zoom-factor for each of the left and right lungs separately starting from the separation position; and - automatically calculating a panning position for the lung for each slice of the stack of slices based upon the display area, wherein said automatically calculating a panning position comprises automatically calculating a panning position for each of the left and right lungs separately starting from the separation position; wherein the zoom-factor (210, 218, 220) and the panning position for each of the left and right lungs are computed to fit the respective left or right lung in the display area and the zoom-factor for each of the left and right lungs is computed to zoom as much as possible while displaying the entire left or right lung; and wherein the method further comprises displaying the lung according to the calculated zoom-factor and panning position within the display area, wherein said displaying the lung comprises displaying the left and right lungs separately according to their respective calculated zoom-factor and panning position. segmenting parenchyma of the lung from the 3D volumetric data set to obtain a binary volumetric data set in which voxels contributing to the parenchyma of the lung have a first value and voxels not contributing to the parenchyma of the lung have a different second value; processing the binary volumetric dataset to determine a separation position in between the left and right lungs, the processing comprising generating a profile of the lung, which corresponds to a histogram of the number of voxels contributing to the parenchyma of the lung as a function of an x-position in the binary volumetric dataset, and determining the separation position between two peaks of the profile, automatically calculating a zoom-factor (210, 218, 220) for the lung for each slice of the stack of slices based upon the display area, wherein said automatically calculating a zoom-factor comprises automatically calculating a zoom-factor for each of the left and right lungs separately starting from the separation position; and - automatically calculating a panning position for the lung for each slice of the stack of slices based upon the display area, wherein said automatically calculating a panning position comprises automatically calculating a panning position for each of the left and right lungs separately starting from the separation position; - automatically calculating a panning position for the lung for each slice of the stack of slices based upon the display area, wherein said automatically calculating a panning position comprises automatically calculating a panning position for each of the left and right lungs separately starting from the separation position; wherein the zoom-factor (210, 218, 220) and the panning position for each of the left and right lungs are computed to fit the respective left or right lung in the display area and the zoom-factor for each of the left and right lungs is computed to zoom as much as possible while displaying the entire left or right lung; and wherein the method further comprises displaying the lung according to the calculated zoom-factor and panning position within the display area, wherein said displaying the lung comprises displaying the left and right lungs separately according to their respective calculated zoom-factor and panning position.