Patent ID: 8923952

Claim:
A method for analyzing molecular breast images comprising the steps of: a) injecting a radionuclide imaging agent into a subject to be imaged; b) compressing a breast of the subject between two opposing, planar gamma detectors, said breast containing a tumor; c) acquiring a number of photons from so compressed breast at each of said gamma detectors to create at least one two-dimensional image representing said compressed breast; d) identifying a two-dimensional tumor image region in said at least one two-dimensional image; e) determining a plurality of intensity profiles, each intensity profile from said plurality of intensity profiles being determined along a respectively corresponding path extending across said two-dimensional tumor image region; and f) calculating, using a processor, a size of the tumor from said plurality of intensity profiles wherein said calculating includes: calculating a plurality of size metrics from each intensity profile of said plurality of intensity profiles, wherein different size metrics from said plurality of size metrics are calculated at different percentage-of-maximum levels of a corresponding intensity profile; and averaging said plurality of size metrics to generate an average size metric indicating said size of the tumor along a path associated with said corresponding intensity profile.