Characterization of both malignant and benign lesions in the female breast is presented as the result of a clinical study that involved more than 190 subjects in the framework of the OPTIMAMM European project. All the subjects underwent optical mammography, by means of a multi-wavelength time-resolved mammograph, in the range 637-985 nm. Optical images were processed by applying a perturbation model, relying on a nonlinear approximation of time-resolved transmittance curves in the presence of an inclusion, with the aim of estimating the major tissue constituents (i.e. oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin, lipid and water) and structural parameters (linked to dimension and density of the scatterer centres) for both the lesion area and the surrounding tissue. The critical factors for the application of the perturbation model on in vivo data are also discussed. Forty-six malignant and 68 benign lesions were analysed. A subset of 32 cancers, 40 cysts and 14 fibroadenomas were found reliable for the perturbation analysis. For cancers, we show a higher blood content with respect to the surrounding tissue, while cysts are characterized by a lower concentration of scattering centres with respect to the surrounding tissue. For fibroadenomas, the low number of cases does not allow any definite conclusions.