Patent ID: 8249320

Claim:
A tumor region size measuring method comprising the steps of: determining a tumor region, which is a three dimensional region that represents a tumor, from a three dimensional medical image; designating a long axis and a short axis of the determined tumor region; and obtaining the lengths of the designated long axis and the designated short axis as the size of the tumor region, wherein: the designation of the long axis and the short axis comprises the steps of: setting an arbitrary point within the determined tumor region; designating a line segment having the greatest length from among a plurality of line segments that pass through the set arbitrary point and the ends of which are positioned on the outline of the tumor region, as the long axis; detecting a cross section of the tumor region having the greatest area from among cross sections of the tumor region that include the long axis; and designating a line segment having the greatest length from among a plurality of line segments within the detected cross section that perpendicularly intersect the designated long axis and the ends of which are positioned on the outline of the tumor region, as the short axis.