Being breastfed in infancy associated with an increased risk of CRC during adulthood

Written By : Aditi |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2023-09-13T10:00:34+05:30 | Updated On 13 Sept 2023 4:32 PM IST

Emerging evidence implicates the importance of perinatal and early-life exposures in colorectal cancer (CRC) development.

Previous studies have not clarified whether being breastfed in infancy is associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in adults, particularly during early adulthood. In the present study, researchers found that a history of being breastfed is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer by 23 % and younger-onset colorectal cancer and adenomas.

This study, “Being Breastfed in Infancy and Risk of Colorectal Cancer and Precursor Lesions,” is led by Chen Yuan et al.

Emerging evidence highlights perinatal and early-life exposure importance in CRC development. In this study, researchers investigated this association between a history of being breastfed and CRC risk and its precursor lesions among 66,634 women aged 46–93 years from the Nurses’ Health Study and 92,062 women aged 27–68 years from the Nurses’ Health Study II.

Study results of this research could be summarised as

During 3.5 million person-years of follow-up, 1490 incident cases of CRC were identified in these two cohorts.
There was an association between having been breastfed and a 23% increased CRC risk.
CRC risk increases with the duration of being breastfed.
Researchers validated these findings using breastfeeding information from the mothers of a subset of participants.
Among younger participants (Nurses’ Health Study II), there was an association between being breastfed and an increased risk of high-risk adenomas under age 50, with an odds ratio of 1.46.
There was an association between having been breastfed and an increased risk of CRC among participants aged ≤55 years, with hazard ratio of 1.38.

Concluding further, they said, “Based on the findings from our research, there is an association between being breastfed in infancy and increased risk of CRC in adulthood, including younger adults.”

Further investigations are warranted to understand the underlying biological mechanisms, as this association does not establish causation, they noted

National Institutes of Health supported Nurses’ Health Study.

BDS, MDS in Periodontics and Implantology

Dr. Aditi Yadav is a BDS, MDS in Periodontics and Implantology. She has a clinical experience of 5 years as a laser dental surgeon. She also has a Diploma in clinical research and pharmacovigilance and is a Certified data scientist. She is currently working as a content developer in e-health services. Dr. Yadav has a keen interest in Medical Journalism and is actively involved in Medical Research writing.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751