1. A method for segmenting an anatomical structure of interest within an image comprising the steps of: comparing the anatomical structure of interest to a database of images of like anatomical structures; identifying those database images of like anatomical structures that are similar to the anatomical structure of interest; using the identified database images to detect the anatomical structure of interest in the image; using the identified database images to determine the shape of the anatomical structure of interest; and segmenting the anatomical structure of interest from the image.