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Breast-feeding the last born child and risk of ovarian cancer

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Abstract

Conflicting reports regarding the relationship between breast-feeding and ovarian cancer risk suggest a possible influence of patterns of breast-feeding. We used logistic regression to examine breast-feeding in a large population of parous women who participated in a case–control study of ovarian cancer in New Hampshire and MA, USA. Risk of ovarian cancer was reduced in parous women who ever breast-fed (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.92), but evidence was limited for an influence of duration of breast-feeding and the number of children breast-fed. Compared to never breast-feeding, inverse associations were seen for breast-feeding all children (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.91) and for breast-feeding some children when the last born child was breast-fed (OR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.91). There was little evidence of reduced risk for those who breast-fed some children when the last born child was not breast-fed (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.66, 1.26). Similar findings were noted in women with exactly two children and in those with two or more children. The protective influence of breast-feeding on ovarian cancer risk may be limited to women who breast-feed their last born child. These findings, which require confirmation by future studies, imply that breast-feeding resets pregnancy-related states that mediate ovarian cancer risk.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the study teams at BWI and Dartmouth and the women of MA and NH for making this study possible. This study was supported by grant RO1CA054419 of the National Cancer Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community & Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, 1 Medical Center Drive, 7927 Rubin Building, Lebanon, NH, 03756, USA

    Linda Titus-Ernstoff & Judy R. Rees

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA

    Linda Titus-Ernstoff

  3. Ob-Gyn Epidemiology Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Kathryn L. Terry & Daniel W. Cramer

Authors
  1. Linda Titus-Ernstoff
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  2. Judy R. Rees
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  3. Kathryn L. Terry
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  4. Daniel W. Cramer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda Titus-Ernstoff.

Additional information

This study was performed at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, and Brigham Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

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Titus-Ernstoff, L., Rees, J.R., Terry, K.L. et al. Breast-feeding the last born child and risk of ovarian cancer. Cancer Causes Control 21, 201–207 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9450-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9450-8

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