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The association between being breastfed in infancy and risks of cancer in adulthood-a UK Biobank study

Dan Hameiri-Bowen1, Dorthe C Pedersen2, Britt W Jensen2

  • 1Center for Clinical Research and Prevention, Copenhagen University Hospital-Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark. dan.hameiri-bowen@regionh.dk.

BJC Reports
|November 8, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Breastfeeding may slightly increase adult cancer risk in women but shows no association in men. These findings do not negate breastfeeding

Area of Science:

  • Epidemiology
  • Oncology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Breastfeeding offers known infant health benefits.
  • Long-term effects of breastfeeding on adult cancer risk are not well understood.
  • This study investigates the link between infant breastfeeding and adult cancer incidence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the association between being breastfed in infancy and the risk of developing common cancers in adulthood.
  • To determine if breastfeeding status influences overall cancer risk or risk at specific cancer sites.
  • To explore potential sex-specific differences in these associations.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized UK Biobank data from 339,115 participants with self-reported breastfeeding history.
  • Linked participant data to national cancer registries for incident cancer tracking.
  • Employed Cox proportional hazards models to estimate sex-specific hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Main Results:

  • A total of 34,392 incident cancers were recorded.
  • Being breastfed was associated with a marginally increased risk of overall cancer in women (HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.09).
  • No association was found for overall cancer risk in men (HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.96-1.04).
  • Site-specific analyses revealed increased risks of breast and ovarian cancers in women and reduced risk of esophageal cancer in men associated with breastfeeding.

Conclusions:

  • Infant breastfeeding is linked to a slightly elevated risk of adult cancer in women.
  • No evidence of an association between breastfeeding and adult cancer risk was observed in men.
  • These findings, considering study limitations, do not diminish the established benefits of breastfeeding.
Abstract

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