title: Breast feeding and childhood hematological malignancy.
abstract: Breast milk is known to have anti-infective and immunomodulating effects on infants, but its association with childhood cancer has not been well studied. Artificial feeding may affect the immune response in carcinogenesis. In this communication the authors have reviewed different articles describing the association between breast feeding (BF) and subsequent development of childhood hematological malignancy. It appears that BF may have a protective effect on childhood cancer, both the duration of BF as well as the quantity of milk ingested is probably critical to the beneficial immunological effects of BF against childhood cancer if any.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Tripathy
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bakhshi
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Arya
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001942:Breast Feeding; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000502:physiology*; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011322:Primary Prevention; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment