Breast cancer prevention - Page 2

[Sustainer]

The way it was described to me was that a woman who breastfeeds for one year has approx 85% of the chance of getting breast cancer as a woman who never breastfeeds. A woman who breastfeeds for 2 years has 70% of the chance that a woman who never breastfeeds has. A woman who bfs for 3 years has only 55% of a non-breastfeeder's chance, and so on... (keep subtracting 15 per year).

[sntm]

I've read some of the studies -- there is probably a protective effect even if you only bfed for a few months, only studies haven't been powered to evaluate that (since it is very very hard to find enough women with breast cancer who can recall exactly how long they breastfed for these studies.)

I'm a surgery resident, planning to do breast surgery, so I'd be happy to answer ?? the people have.

[Janice in Canada]

In the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, where I live there has been a longitudinal study of breast cancer going on now for many years. Women answer a battery of questions on a computer (it takes an hour to 1 1/2 hours to complete it). This study will go on for decades, as long as it is funded. Longitudinal studies are supposed to one of the better types, because they follow people for a long time, and are hopefully giving information at the time it is happening (ie not relying on memory to try to acurately remember information from many years ago).

I just took part in the SK Breast Cancer Study, for the first time, in December. About 100 women from our small town took part (our pop is about 450) so there will be a huge pool of information coming from this study.

Of course I was mostly interested in the breastfeeding questions. (I copies them down verbatim) They asked about each child you had, and then asked these questions:

Questions included:

For how long did x (child's name) have one or more feeding of breast milk daily?
1. never had breast milk
2. first day of life
3. first week of life
4. first month of life
5. more than one month

When did you start formula with X?
1. I never gave formula
2. right away
3. after the first week or so.
4. after the first month
5. I didn't give formula until after I stopped giving breast milk.

How many months did you breastfeed x?
(choices were from the numbers 1 to 29)

At any time after this pregnancy, were you given any shots or injections to stop milk production in your breasts?
At any time after this pregnancy were you given any pills or tablets to stop milk production by you breasts?

you were asked if you had a miscarriage or abortion.

The researcher contact information is

Dr. Carol Haines
phone [phone]
SK Breast Cancer Study
P.O. Box 1485
Saskatoon, SK
S7K 3P7

[sntm]

Janice, that's fascinating! I've been toying with the idea of a similar study, though will have to wait until I'm important enough to get some real funding for it. I may contact the researcher. Thanks!

[TadpolesMom]

Wow - reading this thread was a little creepy to me. I was also 31 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Owensmom - hugs to you. I also had a dbl. mastectomy, but unfortunately it was BEFORE I had children - so I haven't had the chance to even use 'em before I lost 'em. I wasn't aware that breastfeeding reduced my chances of getting breast cancer - but if I had I might have had a child before I was 30 just to help prevent it. But, perhaps I wouldn't have because I was also the first in my family to get breast cancer. Now I'm 34 and I have TWO beautiful boys (a 1 year old and a 2 week old!) and both are breastfed (through privately donated milk). In fact - some of my friends from my Mom's group just came over tonight to bring us dinner and 4 different women breastfed my 2 week old! He took to it like he'd been doing it his whole life!

Anyhoo - not to hijack this thread - I just also wish is was common knowledge that breastfeeding helped to reduce your chance of getting BC. I definitely tell everyone I know of childbearing age that statistic and hope that they use their breasts what they were made for!

Jenn

[Janice in Canada]

sntm (Shannon)
I thought you might be interested. The study has been going on in SK for 10 years or so already. It's really trying to looking into ALL things, it asks alot of detailed questions about your drinking habits at various ages, smoking, relative's health, deodorant use, bra wearing, bra fabrics, menstrual cycles, hair dyes, use of hair dryers, douches, birth control, etc etc etc. Anything you can imagine or has been rumoured to be connected with breast cancer. We will all be traced through our health card number. Thousands of women in SK are participating.

So although there seems to be some fairly good questions about breastfeeding, when you realize how many other things they were exploring ( it really takes 1 1/2 hours using a touch screen computer - and I was FAST- being used to this type of thing), breastfeeding did not seem to be all that important in the whole survey. There were TONS of questions.

I really wish they had looked into it in more detail - ie style of bfing (ie scheduled or on demand), whether you had mastitis, duration of exclusive bfing, bfing past 29 months, etc.

I have considered contacting the researcher, but haven't yet. It does look like they are continually added and revising the survey, so there is hope that the breastfeeding section could be improved. For example, they asked whether I would be willing to keep a log of all farm pesticides I am exposed to in the next year (SK is agricultural, and my dh is a farmer).

So if you are interested, please contact her. Maybe if you are able to educate her, as a peer, it would have more impact than if I contacted her.

Janice
(The survey provided the opportunity, for every question, to push a button that said "why" - telling you in simple terms why they were asking that question. I wish I had done that for the breastfeeding questions, but I forgot, cause I was so focused on getting through the questions, and writing them down, too. Even if I do the survey again, I won't see those questions again, unless I have another baby!).