Accepted 22 June 2013 Published 24 July 2013 We apply different polarization imaging techniques for cancerous liver tissues, and compare the relative contrasts for difference polarization imaging (DPI), degree of polarization imaging (DOPI) and rotating linear polarization imaging (RLPI). Experimental results show that a number of polarization imaging parameters are capable of differentiating cancerous cells in isotropic liver tissues. To analyze the contrast mechanism of the cancer-sensitive polarization imaging parameters, we propose a scattering model containing two types of spherical scatterers and carry on Monte Carlo simulations based on this bi-component model. Both the experimental and Monte Carlo simulated results show that the RLPI technique can provide a good imaging contrast of cancerous tissues. The bi-component scattering model provides a useful tool to analyze the contrast mechanism of polarization imaging of cancerous tissues.