Breastfeeding counsel against cancers

ABSTRACT

The anticancer potential by breastfeeding is not fully tapped in the light of the present knowledge of the subject. Literature indicates that breastmilk has anticancer action but may underestimate its full capacity. The protective spectrum within breastmilk hints on the need for a more comprehensive understanding of it as an anticancer tool. Exclusive breastfeeding could confer protection from carcinogenesis with a greater impact than realised. A literature review was conducted using four electronic databases. Selected areas were extracted after thorough perusal of the articles. The uninitiated would take exclusive breastfeeding seriously if actively counselled as an anticancer tool. Advice on details of the breastfeeding process and holistic information on breastfeeding may endow a greater impact among the skeptics. Counselling the breastfeeding mother on information sometimes not imparted, such as on maternal nutrition, details of the process of breastfeeding, benefits of direct breastfeeding versus milk expression and her psychosocial well being may make a difference in optimising anticancer action that exists in breastmilk. Additionally, its anticancer potential provides a platform to universally improve physical and psychosocial well being of women who breastfeed. Statistics of protection by breastfeeding in some maternal and childhood cancers are evident. "Bio-geno-immuno-nutrition" of breastmilk may shield the mother and infant from carcinogenesis in more ways than appreciated. The molecular basis of mother-to-infant signals and their "energies" need to be researched. Breastfeeding as a modifiable behaviour provides cost effective nutrition with potential for both cancer immunoprophylaxis and immunotherapy.