Patent ID: 7962187

Claim:
A method of determining whether a tumor in a tissue sample is malignant or benign, the method comprising: (a) selecting two wavelengths of light to minimize a difference between relative changes in intensity of light transmitted through the tumor for the two wavelengths, wherein the relative changes in intensity of the light for each wavelength are measured relative to a background intensity of light transmitted through the sample; (b) obtaining measures of background reduced scattering coefficients of the sample at the two wavelengths; (c) calculating an absolute oxygenation level of the tumor in the sample by using the relative changes in intensity of the light for the two wavelengths and the measures of the background reduced scattering coefficients of the sample for the two wavelengths; and (d) determining whether the tumor is malignant or benign based on the value of the calculated absolute oxygenation level.