In a previous study the potential contribution of CAD in improvement of mammographic interpretation was investigated by independently combining findings of the readers with detection results of the CAD software [10]. We applied the same method to the experimental data obtained in this study. In that way we could compare the effect of interactive use of CAD during reading with the effect of combining reader reports with CAD independently after the reading is completed. In summary, independent combination was implemented as follows: only locations in the mammogram that the observers reported were considered. For every finding it was checked whether the location of the finding was marked by CAD and its level of malignancy was determined. If two views were available and the finding was marked in both views, the highest level of malignancy assigned to either of the CAD regions was taken. If the finding was not marked at all by CAD a zero level was assigned. The combined malignancy score of a finding was computed by taking a weighted average of the reader score with the CAD-estimated malignancy score.