Breastfeeding reduces risk of breast cancer data?

[Flower of Bliss]

I seem to remember reading about breastfeeding reducing your risk of getting breast cancer in relation to how long you had breastfed. It was broken down in percents, and I thought that 7 years or more total would result in an almost 0% chance of getting breast cancer. I can't seem to find this reference anywhere now. Did I make it up?

[MaryJaneLouise]

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...94540/abstract

Findings

Women with breast cancer had, on average, fewer births than did controls (2·2 vs 2·6). Furthermore, fewer parous women with cancer than parous controls had ever breastfed (71% vs 79%), and their average lifetime duration of breastfeeding was shorter (9·8 vs 15·6 months). The relative risk of breast cancer decreased by 4·3% (95% CI 2·9–5·8; p<0·0001) for every 12 months of breastfeeding in addition to a decrease of 7·0% (5·0–9·0; p<0·0001) for each birth. The size of the decline in the relative risk of breast cancer associated with breastfeeding did not differ significantly for women in developed and developing countries, and did not vary significantly by age, menopausal status, ethnic origin, the number of births a woman had, her age when her first child was born, or any of nine other personal characteristics examined. It is estimated that the cumulative incidence of breast cancer in developed countries would be reduced by more than half, from 6·3 to 2·7 per 100 women by age 70, if women had the average number of births and lifetime duration of breastfeeding that had been prevalent in developing countries until recently. Breastfeeding could account for almost two-thirds of this estimated reduction in breast cancer incidence.

[HappyFox05]

And when you discuss it, it'll help change people's ideas of the norm if you talk about how much cancer risk you have if you don't breastfeed, rather than how much it's lowered if you do. Turn the tables and make breastfeeding the norm. I wish I could remember the link to the excellent article I read about that.

[Flower of Bliss]

Originally Posted by MaryJaneLouise

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...94540/abstract

Thank you I casually said it at my last LLL meeting and no one there was familiar with the statistic, so I wanted to forward real data to the group assuming that I wasn't making it up. I was surprised that no one else had heard it and started to doubt myself.

[Limabean1975]

Interesting tidbit: My grandmother birthed and breastfed 8 children. She late developed breast cancer and had a double mastectomy - AT nearly 80 years old! She is still in great health nearly 10 years later.

[MaryJaneLouise]

Originally Posted by HappyFox05

And when you discuss it, it'll help change people's ideas of the norm if you talk about how much cancer risk you have if you don't breastfeed, rather than how much it's lowered if you do. Turn the tables and make breastfeeding the norm. I wish I could remember the link to the excellent article I read about that.

Good point. The article link is in my siggie .

[MaryJaneLouise]

Here's a good general level article from ACS on the topic:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/co...ast_Cancer.asp

The results [of the 2002 analysis] were powerful: the risk of breast cancer in developed countries would be cut by more than half if women had the same patterns of births and breastfeeding as women in developing countries.

Almost two-thirds of the reduced risk was due to breastfeeding alone. The rest would be due to the increased numbers of births.

Or put another way, lack of biologically normal childbearing and breastfeeding patterns (as seen in developing countries) doubles breast cancer rates. And the lack of fullterm breastfeeding accounts for 2/3 of that increase.

[mama24-7]

nak

dr. mckenna at the llli conf last july said 1 out of 99 in this country will get breast cancer; 1 in 99,000 in nigeria. he didn't cite a reference but i think it b/c of what someone else said: the lack of full term bf'ing, abnormal (phisiologically speaking) childbirth patterns & i would say lack of ecological bf'ing (using pacifiers, bottles even if they are bm, not napping and/or cosleeping, etc.).

sus