Liz O’Riordan: Is it true that 1 in 20 breast cancers could be prevented by breast feeding?

Liz O’Riordan shared on LinkedIn:

“The truth about breast feeding and breast cancer.

Is it true that 1 in 20 breast cancers could be prevented by breast feeding?

This was a statement lifted from the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission Report published yesterday – but it’s a global estimate that assumes EVERY woman in EVERY country has an average of 6 children and breastfeeds them for 1-2 years.

The facts – breastfeeding one child for 12 months reduces your lifetime risk of breast cancer by 4%

That’s a drop from 17% to 16.4% – so the actual impact is small.

The Report wants to increase breast-feeding education and support globally as en masse this will reduce the numbers of breast cancer – but you don’t need to feel guilty if you didn’t breastfeed for that long or didn’t have children.

If you want to find out your own individual risk of breast cancer, check out the iPrevent tool.”

Video attached to the post.
Source: Liz O’Riordan/LinkedIn

Liz O’Riordan is a breast surgeon, motivational speaker, writer, cancer patient, and advocate from the UK, who blogs about her experiences as a doctor and patient. She has written articles for the Huffington Post, Macmillan, The Pool, and Grazia. Her TEDx talk is called ‘Jar of Joy’. She is the co-author of the book “The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer” (2018), and recently released her memoir “Under the Knife” (2023). In 2016 Dr. O’Riordan was nominated for the “Woman of the Year” award. In 2017, the UK Blog Awards highly commended her for her blog “Breast Surgeon with Breast Cancer”. In the same year, she was nominated as one of Medscape’s best physicians of the year.

About OncoDaily 

OncoDaily was founded in 2023. It is a US-based oncology media platform, which features the latest news, insights, and patient stories from the world of oncology. Within a short period of time it became one of the leading oncology media platforms globally.

OncoDaily gathers content from various sources, including social media posts from renowned oncologists from all over the world, news from oncology societies and cancer centers, patient and survivor stories, and career-related information for professionals.

The mission of OncoDaily is to empower patients, survivors, and professionals with the knowledge and inspiration they need to fight cancer. The motto of OncoDaily is “Cancer doesn’t take a day off – neither do we”.