London: Women with breast cancer who breastfeed for more than six months have a better survival rate, a new study has found.
The study, by researchers from University of Linkoping and County Hospital in Sweden, was conducted on women after 20 years of undergoing surgery for primary breast cancer. Researchers, including those from University of Tromso in
Norway, showed that among breast cancer survivors who breastfed for more than 6 months, both breast cancer mortality and overall mortality risk were less after 20 years.
They examined the link between lifetime breastfeeding history and both breast cancer-specific and overall survival among women treated for breast cancer who had lived long enough for other causes of death to contribute substantially to mortality. "This study confirms that the long-term maternal health benefits of breastfeeding are not only preventative in nature, but that it also has the capacity to reduce the severity of breast cancer," said Arthur I Eidelman, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US.
The study appears in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine.
