Increased Duration of Lactation Associated With Lower Breast Cancer Risk By Will Boggs, MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jun 24 - Lactation appears to decrease the risk of breast cancer among premenopausal women, according to a report in the June 20th issue of International Journal of Cancer. Although large cohort studies in Norway and the United States failed to support a connection, "several case-controlled studies have provided positive evidence for a link between lactation and lowered breast cancer risk," Dr. Soon Young Lee from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland told Reuters Health. Dr. Lee and associates investigated the potential beneficial effect of lactation on the risk of breast cancer among 110,604 premenopausal Korean women who had borne at least one child. Most women in the group who breastfed did so for less than 1 year (79%), the authors report, and only 8% of those who breastfed had done so for more than 24 months. Compared with women who had no history of lactation, those who breastfed for 1 to 12 months had a 20% lower risk of breast cancer, the results indicate. The risk was 40% lower for women who had breastfed for more than 24 months. The lifetime duration of breastfeeding proved to be inversely related to the risk of breast cancer, the researchers note, even after excluding women aged less than 30 years from the analysis. "Breastfeeding is usually recommended [for] the infant's health," said Dr. Lee. "But breastfeeding itself should be treated as an important health behavior for women, as well as their babies." "As breast cancer is the one of the most important cancers, there is no doubt that [public health officials] should encourage women to breastfeed their babies and also provide the technical support and environment," Dr. Lee concluded. Int J Cancer 2003;105:390-393. Related Links *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html