Abstract: What is disclosed is a system and method for the detection of cancerous tissue by analyzing blocks of pixels in a thermal image of a region of exposed skin tissue. In one embodiment, matrices are received which have been derived from vectors of temperature values associated with pixels in blocks of pixels which have been isolated from a plurality of thermal images of both cancerous and non-cancerous tissue. The vectors are rearranged to form matrices.

 A thermal image of a subject is received. Blocks of pixels which reside within a region of exposed skin tissue are identified and isolated. For each identified pixel block, an image vector comprising temperature values associated with these pixels is formed. The vector is provided to a classifier which uses the matrices to classify tissue associated with this block of pixels as being either cancerous or non-cancerous tissue.