c/o Children's Hospital and Health Center
3020 Children's Way, MC 5073
San Diego, CA 92123-4282
Phone: (858) 966-5981
Fax: (858) 966-7563
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Breastfeeding and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Nancy E. Wight MD, FAAP, IBCLC Endogenous sex hormones, particularly estrogens, modulate the immune system, and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) is a tumor that is related to immunologic status. Self-reported menstrual and reproductive history and risk of NHL were evaluated in a cohort of 37,934 Iowa women who were aged 55-69 years, when first enrolled in 1986. Through 1998, 261 cases of NHL were identified by linkage to the Iowa SEER Cancer Registry.
After multivariate adjustment there was no association between NHL incidence and age at menarche, age at menopause, type of menopause, history of infertility, number of miscarriages, or history of induced abortion. There were suggestive inverse associations with nulliparity (RR=0.65; 95% CI 0.36-1.16) and years of ovulation (RR = 0.76 for >37 compared to <28 ovulatory years: p-trend = 0.07). In other words, those women who had never been pregnant had a reduction in risk of NHL.
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Among parous women there was no association with number of livebirths or age at first livebirth, but there was an inverse association with number of children who were breast-fed (RR=0.52 for breast-feeding >2 children versus none; 95% CI 0.33-0.82). In other words, women who reported breastfeeding more than 2 children had half the risk of developing NHL. They concluded that overall, menstrual and reproductive factors were not strongly related to Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma incidence. The inverse association with breast-feeding was considered "novel" and requiring confirmation in other studies.
Cerhan JR, Habermann TM, Vachon CM, Putnam SD, Zheng W, Potter JD, Folsom AR. (Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.) Menstrual and reproductive factors and risk of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: the Iowa women's health study (United States). Cancer Causes Control. 2002 Mar;13(2):131-6. |
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