Can Breast Feeding reduce cancer?
A new study shows a link between breast-feeding and lower risk of breast cancer, among a group of young women who were at a particularly high risk due to family genetics.
Many researchers have discovered that lactation helps protect against breast cancer, however, this new study did not find much of an effect for premenopausal women. On the other hand, women with a family history of breast cancer (sister of mother) who breast-fed have a 59 percent lower risk of premenopausal breast cancer.
Dr. Alison M. Stuebe, foremost author of the study and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill said, “I was sort of stunned. It’s an impressive reduction in risk. Other studies either hadn’t looked at this or didn’t include enough women with a family history to find a statistically significant difference.” The study consisted of 60,075 women participants who had given birth at least once and were part of Harvard Nurses’ Health Study II.
Before any conclusion can be drawn, more research is needed to ensure that the decrease in risk is due to breast-feeding and not some other common factor that all the participants share. The study strictly applies to those who breast-feed, have a mother or sister with breast cancer, and are at risk of premenopausal breast cancer. However, Dr. Stuebe remains hopeful as she suggested that breast-feeding might be just as effective as Tamoxifen, a drug used by women with high-risk to reduce the possibility of breast cancer. Tamoxifen works by interfering with estrogen activity and thereby reducing the risk of breast cancer.
Other theories show that women who used drugs to stop lactating were also at a lower risk. The reduction in risk is not due to hormones as Stuebe said, “”This data would suggest it’s more of the effect of milk being taken out of the breast tissue after pregnancy that’s beneficial. We know that just being pregnant reduces the risk of breast cancer compared with not having been pregnant. Getting milk out afterwards appears to be part of the phenomenon.”
Many other studies have also shown a connection between lower risk of breast cancer and breast-feeding; however, they are limited and less scrupulous.
Breast-feeding is primarily encouraged due to the benefits associated with the baby, but it maybe highly beneficial for the mother as well. A study done in April suggested that women in their 60s who had breast-fed for more than 12 months were 10 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease and considerably less likely to develop heart disease factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. Other studies also show that women who breast-feed are also less likely to develop osteoporosis and ovarian cancer.
Many researchers are questioning the accuracy of the study since there was no reduced risk for women who did not have a family history of breast cancer and nor was their a connection between the benefits and how long or how often the mother breast-fed.“I would be cautious in interpreting this,” Dr. Brinton said. “You would expect to see a dose-response relationship with breast-feeding if it is a really causal protective factor.”
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