PEDIATRICS Vol. 49 No. 5 May 1972, pp. 645-646
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DOES BREAST-FEEDING INCREASE THE CHILD'S RISK OF BREAST CANCER?

Robert W. Miller M.D.1 and Joseph F. Fraumeni Jr. M.D.1

1 Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Wide publicity has been given to the recommendation by an experimental scientist that mothers with a family history of breast cancer should not nurse their daughters for fear of increasing the child's risk of developing breast cancer.1 Because 5% of U.S. women develop this neoplasm,2 a substantial proportion of families have a member with breast cancer, and would be affected by the recommendation. The experimental basis for the advice against breast-feeding should be weighed against the epidemiological evidence concerning transmission of mammary cancer from mother to daughter. In particular, the risk of transmitting breast cancer to the child should be evaluated against the benefits derived from breast-feeding.