Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for determining a temporal breast cancer risk (27). This risk is indicative of detecting cancer in a breast within a predetermined time interval after a negative breast cancer detection result that has been obtained by carrying out a breast cancer detection procedure defined by a breast cancer detection parameter. The temporal breast cancer risk (27) is determined based on a) a probability parameter (25) being indicative of a probability of having breast cancer and b) a density parameter (26) being indicative of a density-related property of breast tissue of a breast, wherein the probability parameter (25) and the density parameter (26) have been determined based on a breast image data set (24) of the woman by using an artificial intelligence. The determined risk can be used, for instance, for deciding whether a supplemental examination should be performed immediately or for defining a screening interval.

Abstract: A method of screening a population of women for breast cancer by mammography, comprising establishing a screening schedule, conducting a screening mammography on a patient in accordance with said screening schedule to obtain a mammogram image, determining whether a cancer lesion is visually observable in said mammogram image, in the event that no cancer lesion is visually observable in said mammogram image conducting a computer image analysis of the mammogram image in which no potential cancer lesion is visually observable, said method serving to determine the risk of there being such a lesion physically present or about to arise within a screening interval, said method comprising applying to the image a statistical classifier trained to score on the basis of texture features in the image that reflect such risk.