FIELD: medicine.SUBSTANCE: invention relates to medicine, in particular to oncology, and can be used to diagnose the occurrence of malignant tumors in tissues in vitro. Photosensitizer is introduced into the tissue. Tissue is affected by laser radiation with a series of pulses with a power density of 0.5 MW/cmand a pulse duration of 15 ns. Intensity of the delayed fluorescence and the phosphorescence of the photosensitizer are simultaneously measured in the time interval of 1–15 mcs after each irradiation pulse. With a decrease in the intensity of phosphorescence, indicating a decrease in the concentration of the triplet states of the photosensitizer, the readings of the intensity of the delayed fluorescence are corrected after each excitation pulse. Adjustment is carried out by adding the value of the difference integral signal of the phosphorescence to the integral signal of the delayed fluorescence. Presence of a tumor in the tissue is diagnosed by reducing the corrected indicator of the intensity of the