Breast-feeding may have a powerful protective effect for women at high risk of developing cancer, researchers reported last night.
A study of women with breast cancer in the family found that those who breast-fed their children enjoyed a 59 per cent reduced risk of getting the disease.
The effect is as powerful as taking the anti-breast cancer drug Tamoxifen for five years, according to researchers.
Researcher Dr Alison Stuebe said: "This is good news for women with a family history of breast cancer."
The findings come from a US study involving more than 100,000 women, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The researchers found the protective effect of breast-feeding only applied to women with breast cancer in the family. And it did not matter how long a woman breast-fed for.
Dr Stuebe, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, said: "This could be because there’s something about genetically caused breast cancer that’s affected by breastfeeding, or it could be because rates of breast cancer were so low in women without a family history that we couldn’t see an association in this data set."
She added: "Mothers and babies need supportive hospital policies, paid maternity leave, and workplace accommodations so that they can meet their breastfeeding goals.
"Public health begins with breastfeeding."
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