A computer-implemented method for identifying features in 3D image volumes includes dividing a 3D volume into a plurality of 2D slices and applying a pre-trained 2D multi-channel global convolutional network (MC-GCN) to the plurality of 2D slices until convergence. Following convergence of the 2D MC-GCN, a plurality of parameters are extracted from a first feature encoder network in the 2D MC-GCN. The plurality of parameters are transferred to a second feature encoder network in a 3D Anisotropic Hybrid Network (AH-Net). The 3D AH-Net is applied to the 3D volume to yield a probability map;. Then, using the probability map, one or more of (a) coordinates of the objects with non-maximum suppression or (b) a label map of objects of interest in the 3D volume are generated.