Abstract C57: Knowledge of breastfeeding to reduce breast cancer risk
Authors: Ganju Akaansha , Suresh Anupama , Stephens Julie , Palettas Marilly , Burke Diana , Miles Laura , Lustberg Maryam , Brill Seuli , Ramaswamy Bhuvaneswari 
Published: February 2019

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that higher parity and lack of breastfeeding associates strongly with the risk of developing the aggressive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). There is a 25-50% reduction in risk of developing TNBC in women who have breastfed &gt;4-6 months when compared to parous women who have never breastfed. Higher rates of breastfeeding and lower incidence of BC observed in native African women support this postulate. Observational studies and recent national statistics indicate that the prevalence of breastfeeding is markedly low among African-American women (AAW) (58.9%) compared to Caucasian women (CW) (75.2%). Due to the remarkable health and economic benefit of breastfeeding, we investigated whether patients received information about breast cancer risk reduction as part of breastfeeding counseling and whether this knowledge affected participants' decision to initiate and sustain breastfeeding.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted from September 2016 to June 2017 at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) on women aged 18-50 who had at least one live-born child. Participants completed an electronic survey that included demographic information and details of breastfeeding history. Recruitment occurred via primary care secure patient portal electronic messaging (MyChart) and an online national clinical research registry (Research Match). Summary statistics were used to describe responses. Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was used to compare length of breastfeeding.

Results: A total of 724 women (496 CW and 152 AAW and 76 unknown) completed the online survey; 503 responses through Research Match, 197 through MyChart, and 24 unknown. 92% of those who responded had breastfed. 56% (60.7% Caucasians and 46.1% AA) of women said they were aware breastfeeding reduced the risk of cancer. Of those who were aware of the risk, 36.4% said that this knowledge affected their decision to breastfeed. Of the 39 who did not breastfeed, 23 (59.0%) said being aware of this risk would have influenced their decision. Only 16.6% of women reported they received this information from health care providers; others were informed through magazines and Internet. The mean length of breastfeeding among women who were aware of this benefit was significantly longer than the women who were not aware (13.2 months vs 9.3 months, respectively, p&lt;0.001). 39.5% of AAW breastfed any one child for less than 6 months compared to 28% of CW. A greater percentage of women with a high school degree or below breastfed any one child for less than 6 months (59.0%) compared to women with some college or higher (30.1%). Most women (66.3%) went back to the workforce within the first year of their most recent birth, and 39.2% of women marked returning to work as a barrier to breastfeeding.

Conclusions: Our study showed that there are disparities between AAW and CW in the knowledge that breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer and in the duration of breast feeding. In addition, we showed that increased knowledge impacts decision-making regarding breastfeeding. Hence, development of culturally relevant communication strategies, especially in AAW, can impact initiation and maintenance of breastfeeding, and ultimately result in aggressive breast cancer reduction.

Citation Format: Akaansha Ganju, Anupama Suresh, Julie Stephens, Marilly Palettas, Diana Burke, Laura Miles, Maryam Lustberg, Seuli Brill, Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy. Knowledge of breastfeeding to reduce breast cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C57.