Acousto-optic imaging could be used to detect prostate cancer in vivo.

Detection of prostate cancer has frequently been plagued with inadequate sensitivity and specificity. Hypoxia is the hallmark of malignancy because aggressive cancers outgrow their blood supply. Optical imaging is emerging as a physiologic tool capable of quantifying hypoxia, but only at centimeter spatial resolution, which is unacceptable for prostate cancer imaging.