WASHINGTON: Women who have watched a mother, sibling or child battle
breast cancer can become understandably preoccupied, if not obsessed, with
trying to reduce their own risk of the disease. One possible way to do that?
Breast-feed.
In a study just published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine,
researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School analysed
data on 60,075 women who had given birth and who had provided information about,
among many other things, their breast-feeding practices.
Earlier studies had hinted that breast-feeding might lower a woman's chance of
developing the disease, but those results were far from conclusive.
Findings of this new study seem clearer. Researchers found that those women who
had a so-called first-degree relative with breast cancer were less likely to
develop pre-menopausal breast cancer if they had breast-fed.
Duration of breast-feeding did not affect risk, the study said, nor did whether
the women supplemented breast milk with formula, nor did whether the women
experienced a cessation of menstruation. Just the act of breast-feeding.
No
such connection was found in women who did not have a family history of breast
cancer.
In this study, the researchers conclude: 'The observed 59 per cent reduction in
risk compares favourably with hormonal treatments such as Tamoxifen for women at
high risk for breast cancer.
'Moreover, breast-feeding is associated with multiple other health benefits for
both mother and child. The data suggests that women with a family history of
breast cancer should be strongly encouraged to breast-feed.'
'I was sort of stunned,' said Dr Alison Stuebe, the first author of the study
and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
'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,' she said.
More research is needed to replicate the findings and to show that the reduced
risk is the result of breast-feeding, rather than some other factor common to
women who breast-feed.
But Dr Stuebe suggested that breast- feeding may prove just as effective a
strategy for high-risk women as the use of Tamoxifen, a drug that interferes
with oestrogen activity. It is often used to reduce chances of breast cancer in
high-risk women.
Though breast-feeding is promoted primarily because it is linked to better
health in babies, mothers, too, seem to accrue long-term advantages.
Studies have found that women who breast-fed are less likely to develop
osteoporosis and ovarian cancer, as well as high blood pressure and heart
disease decades later.
Because women who breast-feed tend to be more educated and to have higher
incomes than those who bottle-feed, disentangling the effects of lactation from
those of other habits and behaviour can be difficult.
Source : The Straits Times
