Using the method of adaptive kernel learning based relevance vector machine (ARVM) and combining the morphological filtering and the clustering criterion recommended by Kallergi, a new algorithm for microcalcification (MC) clusters processing in mammograms is investigated. Firstly, the detection of MC is formulated as a supervised-learning problem. Then the ARVM is used as a classifier to determine whether an MC object is present at each location in the mammogram and a morphological processing is used to remove the isolated spurious pixels. Finally, the identified MC clusters are obtained by Kallergi criterion. To improve the computational speed, a fast processing method based on ARVM is developed, in which the whole image is decomposed first into sub-image blocks for parallel operation. Experimental results indicate that the ARVM method outperforms the RVM method and, in particular, the fast processing method could greatly reduce the testing time.