in the pressure profile ratio u03b4p p o is observed as the elasticity moduli ratio e e o of the tumor tissue relative to the normal tissue increases combined systems can be utilized including pressure sensors that determine surface conditions and scanners such as mri x ray or ultrasound scanners which provide information about deformations and corresponding strain profiles of internal structures under various loading conditions the pressure sensing arrays can indicate stress profiles on the surface and the conventional scanners give information about the changes in geometry of any internal structures and corresponding strain pattern thus the calculation of elasticity of internal tissues will be performed with higher resolution and additionally regions of interest in the images produced by an imaging device can be characterized in the terms of relative elasticity or hardness this will increase diagnostic capability of the existing imaging methods in tumor diagnostics in fig1 and 11 a combined system is illustrated in fig1 a mass of tissue indicated at 320 is supported on a suitable support 322 which has a scanner and associated probe 324 mounted thereon on a bottom side or from an opposite side from the tissue the tissue is compressed with a support.