This being a Breastfeeding week, let’s learn something on the relationship between Cancer and Breastfeeding. Did you know that women who breastfeed have a lower risk of breast cancer especially before menopause, than women who don’t breastfeed?
Many women are not aware that breastfeeding their babies can help lower their own risk of developing breast cancer; despite the fact that most parents are aware that breastfeeding is the best way to nurture babies and offers them vital health benefits.
Breastfeeding may be more strongly linked to a lower risk of estrogen receptor-negative (Some breast cancer cells require progesterone and/or oestrogen. Hormone receptors are unique proteins found inside these cancer cells. When hormones attach to hormone receptors, the cancer cells with these receptors grow.
Hormone receptor-negative tumors are estrogen receptor-negative (ER-negative) and progesterone receptor-negative (PR- negative). Hormone receptors are not expressed in these tumors. Because of this, they either have few or no hormone receptors.
Approximately 75% to 85% of newly diagnosed breast cancers are hormone receptor-positive, these hormones cane be treated with hormone therapies; hormone theraphy drugs include aromatase inhibitors, tamoxifen, anastrozole, exemestane and letrozole. Hormone receptor-negative breast cancers are not treated with hormone therapies because they don’t have hormone receptors.
Research suggests that breastfeeding women are less likely to develop pre and post-menopausal breast cancer symptoms. And breastfeeding longer than six months can have additional benefits. Most women ignore their breast health, which results in breast cancer, due to which the number of increased breast cancer cases worldwide.
Breastfeeding protects children from cancer, it reduces not only the mother’s chances of cancer but also the child’s. It is therefore beneficial to both mother and child. Studies show that breastfeeding prevents the child from being overweight, that later reduces the risk of many cancers such as pancreatic, post-menopausal breast, endometrial, oesophagal, rectal, and kidney cancers.
A mother’s hormones are altered by breastfeeding, which may delay the onset of her menstrual cycle and minimize her lifetime exposure to oestrogen and other hormones that may increase her risk of breast cancer. Breastfeeding may also aid in preventing breast cancer-causing mutations in cells.
Breast cancer can be detected during breastfeeding; when a woman feels a lump in the breast during breastfeeding, it could be a sign of breast cancer, and the lumps can disappear after some time but can translate to cancer as a result of mastitis, which is an infection of the breast tissue by a bacteria which blocks milk ducts. Symptoms are swelling and pain in the breast, skin warmth and redness, fever. Fibro adenomas, which are lumps that feel like marble when touched and always move beneath the skin can also be the symptoms.
REFERENCES
Fei, F., Siegal, G. P., & Wei, S. (2022). Characterizing clinicopathologic features of estrogen receptor-positive/progesterone receptor-negative breast cancers. Clinical Breast Cancer, 22(7), e788-e797.
Huang, Y., Ouyang, Y. Q., & Redding, S. R. (2019). Previous breastfeeding experience and its influence on breastfeeding outcomes in subsequent births: a systematic review. Women and Birth, 32(4), 303-309.
Kay, J. E., Cardona, B., Rudel, R. A., Vandenberg, L. N., Soto, A. M., Christiansen, S., … & Fenton, S. E. (2022). Chemical effects on breast development, function, and cancer risk: existing knowledge and new opportunities. Current Environmental Health Reports, 9(4), 535-562.
Rozeboom, B., Dey, N., & De, P. (2019). ER+ metastatic breast cancer: Past, present, and a prescription for an apoptosis-targeted future. American journal of cancer research, 9(12), 2821.
Skilton, M. R. (2022). Obesity and Cancer. Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children, 211-220.
Trabert, B., Sherman, M. E., Kannan, N., & Stanczyk, F. Z. (2020). Progesterone and breast cancer. Endocrine reviews, 41(2), 320-344.
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