breast cancer/breastfeeding - looking for brochures

[fireshifter]

With breast cancer awareness month here, my allied health club is doing a booth on breast cancer awareness. A few of the leaders breastfed and know that breastfeeding is linked to less breast cancer and we'd LOVE to put this information out there. Does anyone have ANY brochures or pamphlets?

Jen D.

[Bekka]

I have NEVER seen anything published besides by BF advocates that says this. I have told multiple breast cancer organizations that they can expect financial support from me WHEN they include this in their "ways to minimize cancer" fact brochures. It NEVER fails to stop them in their tracks.

[fireshifter]

So there's no other source then? I need to call LLL and see if they have anything.

Jen D.

[MaryJaneLouise]

This isn't a short & sweet brochure, but it is listed in ProMom's 101 reasons to bf:

http://www.promom.org/101/

Not breastfeeding increases mother's risk of breast cancer
Many studies have shown that women who breastfeed have lower risks of developing breast cancer. Recently, data from 47 studies in 30 countries was re-examined. The study group concluded that the incidence of breast cancer in developed countries could be reduced by more than half if women had the number of births and lifetime duration of breastfeeding that have been common in developing countries until recently. According to the analysis, breastfeeding could account for almost two-thirds of this estimated reduction in breast cancer incidence.

Jernstorm, H et al "Breast-feeding and the risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers." J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004;96:1094-1098

Lee, SY et al "Effect of lifetime lactation on breast cancer risk: a Korean women's cohort study." Int J Cancer. 2003;105:390-393

Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer (2002). "Breast cancer and breastfeeding: collaborative reanalysis of individual data from 47 epidemiological studies in 30 countries, including 50,302 women with breast cancer and 96,973 women without the disease." Lancet 360: 187-95

Zheng et al, "Lactation Reduces Breast Cancer Risk in Shandong Province, China" Am. J. Epidemiol. Dec. 2000, 152 (12): 1129

Newcomb PA, Storer BE, Longnecker MP, et al. "Lactation and a reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer." N Engl J Med. 1994;330:81-87

[MadameXCupcake]

Part of this is OT but why don't they tell women this? I have also read there have been numerous studies showing hormonal birth control linked to increased breast cancer risk,.. why is this never mentioned either?

I honestly think the whole pink ribbon breast cancer fundraising is a sham if 'they' wanted to do something I really think these facts would be mentioned more. Breastfeeding can reduce our rates by more than half possibly?? That is HUGE! That message should be plastered everywhere for women to see.
Do these orginazations ever show where all the money goes? I see the pink stuff for breast cancer EVERYWHERE. I saw paper towels at the grocery store with pink ribbons the other day!

Someone somewhere must be making a lot of money.

[DisplacedYooper]

For what it's worth, I recall that Dr. Donohue (you know, the newspaper column guys who's usually next to Dear Abby) shocked me by coming right out and saying breastfeeding reduces your risk of breast cancer! I had never read that before in a mainstream source (though of course I was familiar with it from MDC and similar...)

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Does breastfeeding protect against breast cancer or make it more likely? I have heard both sides. -- C.N.

ANSWER: Many studies have shown conclusively that breastfeeding lowers the risk for breast cancer. For every 12 months a woman has breastfed, her chances of breast cancer drop by 4.3 percent.

One explanation is that breastfeeding delays ovulation and the production of estrogen.

http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/new...dvice/016.html

I know it's not a pamphlet, but it could be quoted in a pamphlet that you made. :

[DisplacedYooper]

Originally Posted by MadameXCupcake

I honestly think the whole pink ribbon breast cancer fundraising is a sham if 'they' wanted to do something I really think these facts would be mentioned more. Breastfeeding can reduce our rates by more than half possibly?? That is HUGE! That message should be plastered everywhere for women to see.
Do these orginazations ever show where all the money goes? I see the pink stuff for breast cancer EVERYWHERE. I saw paper towels at the grocery store with pink ribbons the other day!

I know, in our grocery store last weekend there was a huge drive... We have a regular guy who hands out samples, and he was offering balloons and some kind of weird handcleaner all in the name of the pink ribbon. We usually chat with him, and I said something like "I must be the only woman in the world who diagrees with this campaign" and he said "I know what you mean, they should focus more on prevention." I know he knows I nurse my toddler (from a discussion about why I couldn't try some yogurt one day) so maybe we have a secret ally wandering the aisles of Hannaford!

[sweetpeppers]

Originally Posted by Bekka

I have NEVER seen anything published besides by BF advocates that says this. I have told multiple breast cancer organizations that they can expect financial support from me WHEN they include this in their "ways to minimize cancer" fact brochures. It NEVER fails to stop them in their tracks.

I agree. I am very upset with the "Breast Cancer Awareness" campaign. They include none of the major risk factors in their brochures. Mention nothing about diet, breastfeeding, artificial hormones, having abortions, and other ways to lower your chances of getting breast cancer. Women have a right to know this stuff, and it psses me off that their big story is early detection. How about how to prevent it in the first place?

[MaryJaneLouise]

Originally Posted by sweetpeppers

I agree. I am very upset with the "Breast Cancer Awareness" campaign. They include none of the major risk factors in their brochures. Mention nothing about diet, breastfeeding, artificial hormones, having abortions, and other ways to lower your chances of getting breast cancer. Women have a right to know this stuff, and it psses me off that their big story is early detection. How about how to prevent it in the first place?

I wish Breast Cancer Awareness campaigns were better, too. But just as a point of fact, having induced abortions does NOT increase your risk of getting breast cancer. There was one preliminary report that suggested that might be the case, but many subsequent studies have refuted it. For instance,

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...RVAbstractPlus

Int J Cancer. 2006 Oct 1;119(7):1741-5.
Breast cancer risk in relation to abortion: Results from the EPIC study.

The relative risk of breast cancer among women who reported ever having had an induced abortion when compared to women who reported never having had an induced abortion was 0.95 (0.87-1.03). Overall, the findings provide further unbiased evidence of the lack of an adverse effect of induced abortion on breast cancer risk.