Cancer is a life-threatening disease which reduces the lifespan of humans. If the disease is treated early, the lifespan can be extended. This paper provides a useful method for detecting the abnormalities in the mammograms. The proposed method uses four phases such as pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and classification. In the pre-processing phase, median filter is utilized to enhance the quality of an image. The pre-processed image is then segmented by fuzzy C means (FCM). Three different features such as Gaussian–Hermite moments (GHM), Jacobi moments and pseudo Zernike moments (PZM) are extracted from the segmented image. Finally, extreme learning machine (ELM) classifier identifies the normal, malignant and benign kinds of cancer. This method is compared with four different classifiers. The proposed method is tested on mammographic image analysis society (MIAS) dataset and the performance is evaluated against several analogous approaches in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The proposed approach substantially provides the best result.