1. A method of soft tissue characterization and soft tissue differentiation comprising the steps of: (a) detecting a lesion in said tissue; (b) applying an increasing compression force over said lesion and collecting a sequence of stress patterns as a function of said increasing compression force; (c) calculating from said sequence of stress patterns at least three elasticity features characterizing said lesion, said elasticity features selected from a group consisting of strain hardening, loading curve average slope, lesion peak signal under a predetermined load, tissue heterogeneity, lesion shape and lesion mobility; (d) inputting said at least three calculated elasticity features into a statistical classifier to calculate probabilities of possible diagnostic outcomes, said statistical classifier created in advance using a dataset of previously collected samples with known clinical status, said samples having been collected from several patients and including data on elasticity features that are the same as said at least three calculated elasticity features; and (e) selecting a diagnostic outcome with prevailing calculated probability for providing a diagnosis of said soft tissue.