A medical imaging system and method. A UV/visible camera uses a back illuminated silicon imaging detector to observe a surface of a brain of a subject in vivo during brain surgery for excision of a cancerous tumor. The detector can be a CCD detector or a CMOS detector. Under UV illumination, the camera can record images that can be processed to detect the location and extent of a cancerous tumor because the presence of auto-fluorescent NADH variations can be detected between normal and cancerous cells. The image data is processed in a general purpose programmable computer. In some instances, an image is also taken using visible light, and the identified cancerous region is displayed as an overlay on the visible image.
