Patent ID: 8425418

Claim:
A method for use in medical imaging, comprising: providing a deformable prostate shape model comprising an average shape of a plurality of prostate images obtained from a plurality of patients; obtaining a cancer probability map from prostate cancer statistics of a plurality of patients, wherein the cancer probability map identifies at least one region of a prostate having an increased probability of cancer; aligning said cancer probability map with said deformable prostate shape model to obtain a deformable prostate shape model having cancer probability statistics; obtaining an ultrasound image of a prostate of a current patient; segmenting said ultrasound image of said current patient to identify a boundary of said prostate of said current patient; fitting the deformable prostate shape model having cancer probability statistics to the boundary of the segmented prostate image so that said at least one region having an increased probability of cancer is overlaid onto the ultrasound image of said prostate of said current patient; establishing at least one biomarker on said at least one region of said shape model, wherein said at least one biomarker represents a biopsy location statistically associated with cancer; presenting, on a display, the ultrasound image of said current patient with said at least one biomarker; and performing a procedure on the prostate of the current patient based on the at least one biomarker in the presented ultrasound image of the current patient.