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Role of breastfeeding on maternal and childhood cancers: An umbrella review of meta-analyses.

Foshan Fetal Medicine Research Institute, Affiliated Foshan Women and Children Hospital, Southern Medical University, Foshan, Guangdong, China. Department of Obstetrics, Affiliated Foshan Women and Children Hospital, Southern Medical University, Foshan, Guangdong, China. Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation and Centre for Healthcare Transformation, School of Public Health & Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China. Department of Library, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. School of Medicine, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong, China.

Journal of global health. 2023;:04067
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Abstract

BACKGROUND Multiple studies and meta-analyses have claimed that breastfeeding is inversely correlated with maternal and childhood cancers. These results could either be causal or confounded by shared risk factors. By conducting an umbrella review, we aimed to consolidate the relationship between breastfeeding and maternal and childhood cancers. METHODS We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Elsevier ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 2022. Two reviewers independently extracted the data and assessed the quality of the studies using standardised forms. We considered two types of breastfeeding comparisons ("ever" vs "never" breastfeeding; and "longest" vs "shortest" duration). We estimated the pooled risk and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each meta-analysis. RESULTS We included seventeen meta-analyses with 55 comparisons. There was an inverse correlation between breastfeeding and childhood leukaemia (pooled risk = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.81-0.99), neuroblastoma (pooled risk = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.71-0.93), maternal ovarian cancer (pooled risk = 0.76, CI = 0.71-0.81), breast cancer (pooled risk = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.82-0.88), and oesophageal cancer (pooled risk = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.54-0.81) for "ever" vs "never" breastfeeding; and with childhood leukaemia (pooled risk = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89-0.98), and maternal ovarian cancer (pooled risk = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.78-0.90) and breast cancer (pooled risk = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.89-0.96) for "longest" vs "shortest" breastfeeding duration. CONCLUSIONS We found evidence that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of maternal breast cancer, ovarian cancers, and childhood leukaemia, suggesting positive implications for influencing women's decision in breastfeeding. REGISTRATION PROSPERO (CRD42021255608).

Methodological quality

Publication Type : Review

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