Breastfeeding may reduce risk of leukemia in children

Using PubMed and Web of Science, epidemiological studies published up to June 2023 assessing diet-related risk factors for childhood acute leukemia were identified.

The study evaluated 37 case-control studies. Outcomes were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The control participants were healthy children and adolescents without the exposure.

The key findings of the study could be summarised as:

• Breastfeeding (yes vs. no) protects against acute lymphoblastic leukemia with an odds ratio of 0.85.
• Breastfeeding reduced ALL risk by 15% (meta-analysis of 9 case-control studies, 6400 cases and 17,642 controls).
• The strongest association was recorded for breastfeeding duration of 7-12 months.
• Breastfeeding reduced AML risk by 17% (meta-analysis of 4 case-control studies).
• There was no relationship between early-life diet/neonatal vitamin K administration and childhood acute leukaemia.

They wrote, “We found the protective role of breastfeeding in childhood acute leukemia and could be recommended as a factor contributing to the prevention of childhood leukemia.”

There need to be more investigations on cost-effective, evidence-based preventive strategies to combat acute leukemia in children.

Further reading:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10489830/