Patent ID: 7274810

Claim:
A method of estimating volumetric doubling time (DT) of an object which changes size, said object found in a mammalian host, comprising: a. obtaining a measurement of a change of a volumetric characteristic of an object in a mammal over a time period, said object characterized as changing in size over a time period, said measurement of said change of said volumetric characteristic being obtained from an object at a first time (t 1 ) and at a later second time (t 2 ); b. relating said change in said volumetric characteristic found in step (a) to said time period via an exponential size change model; and c. determining an estimated doubling time (DT) by comparing volume change over said time period comprising: (i) defining a minimum-detectable size dimension β; and (ii) calculating doubling time using volume measurement at t 2 and a volume measurement derived from said minimum-detectable size dimension β, and the time period (Δt s ) between t 1 and t 2 .