A method and apparatus for determining the progress of a disease. A pre-determined vector space is determined where the vector space mathematically describes a reference set of wavelength resolved data at a plurality of time intervals. A sample containing at least one cell is irradiated with light. Target data is collected where the target data corresponds to at least one of light emitted from or scattered by the sample and includes a plurality of spatially accurate wavelength resolved measurements of light. The target data is transformed into the pre-determined vector space for each spatially accurate wavelength resolved measurement of light. A distribution of transformed points is analyzed in the plurality of pre-determined vector space. Based on the analysis, a transition of a disease condition of the sample is classified.