In this paper, we study anisotropic scattering and light propagation models applicable to diffuse optical tomography. We propose a model for anisotropic scattering in the radiative transfer framework and derive the corresponding anisotropic diffusion model. To verify the anisotropic diffusion model, we consider the case of a simple anisotropic scattering model also presentable within the diffusion approximation. For numerical computations, we present a three-dimensional (3D) anisotropic Monte Carlo model and 2D finite element and boundary element solutions of the anisotropic diffusion model, and compare the results of the simulations.