Patent ID: 8876716

Claim:
A method for characterizing a volume of breast tissue of a patient, comprising: scanning the volume of breast tissue with a ring transducer comprising a plurality of transmitters configured to emit acoustic waves towards the volume of breast tissue and a plurality of receivers configured to detect a collection of acoustic waves from the volume of breast tissue; at a computing system, receiving a set of ultrasound data derived from the collection of acoustic waves from the volume of breast tissue; at the computing system, generating a three-dimensional acoustic reflection rendering of the volume of breast tissue from the set of ultrasound data, a three-dimensional acoustic attenuation rendering of the volume of breast tissue from the set of ultrasound data, and a three-dimensional acoustic speed rendering of the volume of breast tissue from the set of ultrasound data; at the computing system, generating a merged rendering based on the three-dimensional acoustic reflection rendering, the three-dimensional acoustic attenuation rendering, and the three-dimensional acoustic speed rendering; at the computing system, identifying a region of interest within the volume of breast tissue from the merged rendering; at the computing system, determining a set of quantitative prognostic parameters for the region of interest within the volume of breast tissue, in the merged rendering, wherein the set of quantitative prognostic parameters for the region of interest comprises a volume average value of acoustic attenuation, a volume average value of acoustic speed, and a reflection index characterizing margin sharpness for the region of interest, derived from changes in acoustic impedance within the region of interest; and at the computing system, characterizing the region of interest based upon a predictive model and the set of quantitative prognostic parameters, wherein the predictive model is evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve.