A method for assessing the condition of a tissue sample includes the steps of: 1. illuminating the sample with incident electromagnetic radiation exhibiting P polarization types, 2. for each of the P polarization types, inspecting the scattered incident radiation for at least one and possibly all of Q polarization types; 3. establishing a transfer function M relating the intensity of the P polarization types of the incident radiation to the intensity of the polarization types for which the scattered radiation was inspected; 4. comparing the established transfer function to one or more reference transfer functions; and 5. reaching a conclusion about the condition of the tissue sample based on the comparison.