Segmentation-free estimation of volume changes in 3D ultrasound of breast lesion phantoms

Estimation of volume change of structures in response to treatment or growth during breast screening exams is a challenge primarily because of ill-defined boundary. Some treatment procedures alter the lesion completely out of its original shape. In this paper, we present an overview of our recent work on identifying a technique based on Image Volume Based Registration (IVBaR) for estimation of volume. We propose that as long as a region of interest around the lesion can be identified, the exact boundary information would not be necessary. Here, we assume that the surrounding tissue remains nearly unaffected by the treatment procedure, an assumption that is valid in many cases. It is the motion of this tissue in response to changes in the central tumor that would be tracked and used to estimate the change in tumor volume.