Presented is a method to detect precancerous states in mammalian cell and tissue samples comprising incubating a sample wit solubilized 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis (carboxyphenyl) porphine (TCPP), measuring TCPP fluorescence in the sample, and categorizing the sample, and categorizing the sample as non-cancerous, precancerous or cancerous based on TCPP fluorescence, as correlated with the respective states of the cells. In conjunction with the method a detection, a novel and more efficient method of solubilizing TCPP is presented, as well as a composition comprising TCPP solubilized by this method.
