Method of Determining the Probabilities of Suspect Nodules Being Malignant

A method comprising:

• tabulating histogram data of malignant and benign nodules as a function of biomarker values for a specified patient population suspect of having a specific type of cancer to generate a measured histogram, where biomarker values comprise mean concentrations of a contrast agent in the nodules;
• generating a Gaussian approximated histogram of the measured histogram;
• generating from the Gaussian approximated histogram and the biomarker values a malignancy probability diagram that represents a probability that a suspect nodule having a specified biomarker value would be found to be malignant if biopsied;
• scanning a suspect nodule in a patient, and determining a biomarker value for the suspect nodule;
• and
• determining from the malignancy probability diagram a malignancy probability for the suspect nodule.

A method comprising:

• tabulating histogram data of true positives and false positives as a function of marker values for a specified population suspect of having a specific characteristic;
• separating tabulated histogram data into a plurality of marker bins where the bins are ranges of marker values;
• calculating positive probability fractions for each marker bin by dividing a number of true positives in each marker bin by a summed number of true and false positives in each biomarker bin;
• determining a characteristic marker value for a member of the specified population;
• and
• determining from the tabulated histogram data, a positive probability for the member of the specified population.