Method for computer-aided detection of three-dimensional lesions

A method, system, and computer program product for identifying at least one three-dimensionally extended lesion within a volumetric region encompassing an inner surface, an outer surface, and intervening tissue of a target organ. The method includes: (1) generating a set of voxels representing a total scanned volume from a set of cross-sectional images of the target organ; (2) performing segmentation to extract a set of voxels representing the volumetric region from the set of voxels representing the total scanned volume; (3) detecting a set of candidate lesions based on geometric feature values of each voxel in the set of voxels representing the volumetric region; and (4) selecting the at least one three-dimensionally extended lesion from the set of candidate lesions based on at least one of volumetric, morphologic, and texture feature values of each lesion in the set of candidate lesions.