母乳喂养又一好处：可明显降低儿童患白血病风险

  一篇发表于国际杂志JAMA Pediatrics上的研究论文中，来自以色列海法大学（University of Haifa）的研究人员通过研究发现，相比不接受或较短时间的母乳喂养的儿童而言，接种母乳喂养6个月或更长时间或可明显降低儿童患白血病的风险。
  白血病是一种常见的儿童癌症，其在儿童癌症中大约占了30%的比例，目前引发儿童白血病的机制尚不清楚；母乳被认为可以供给婴儿发育生长期间所需的所有营养物质，而且当前推荐至少对婴儿进行最初的6个月母乳喂养来优化婴儿的生长、发育以及健康情况。研究者Efrat L. Amitay博士表示，文章中我们回顾了18篇针对母乳喂养和儿童白血病之间的相关论文，研究发现，相比不进行母乳喂养或较短时间喂养的儿童而言，进行6个月甚至更长时间的母乳喂养或可降低儿童19%的患白血病的风险。
  此外研究者对另外15项研究分析发现，相比从不进行母乳喂养的个体而言，曾经进行母乳喂养或可降低儿童11%患白血病的风险。研究者表示，母乳中的许多生物学机制或可帮助解释其降低白血病风险的原因，比如母乳中包含有多种免疫活性组分和抗炎性防御机制，其会影响婴儿的机体免疫系统。
  因为公共卫生的主要目标就是预防个体处于病态，而保健专业人员也应当普及母乳喂养的健康益处，并且给予母亲适当的帮助来协助其进行母乳喂养；母乳喂养的许多潜在的保护性机制都需要向公众普及，而不仅是母亲自身，因此在未来母乳喂养或许可以在很大程度上被公众接受并且普及，另外后期也需要进行大量研究来阐明母乳喂养为何会降低儿童患白血病的风险。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
  以上为转化医学网原创翻译整理，转载请注明出处和链接！
转化医学网推荐的原文摘要：

Breastfeeding and Childhood Leukemia Incidence-A Meta-analysis and Systematic Review
JAMA Pediatr  doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1025
Efrat L. Amitay, PhD, MPH1; Lital Keinan-Boker, MD, PhD, MPH1,2
Importance  Childhood cancer is a leading cause of mortality among children and adolescents in the developed world and the incidence increases by 0.9% each year. Leukemia accounts for about 30% of all childhood cancer but its etiology is still mostly unknown.

Objective  To conduct a meta-analysis of available scientific evidence on the association between breastfeeding and childhood leukemia.

Data Sources  A thorough search for articles published between January 1960 and December 2014 researching the association between breastfeeding and childhood leukemia was conducted on PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus (performed in July and December 2014), supplemented by manual searches of reference lists.

Study Selection  To be included in the meta-analyses, studies had to be case control; include breastfeeding as a measured exposure and leukemia as a measured outcome; include data on breastfeeding duration in months; and be published in a peer-reviewed journal with full text available in English.

Data Extraction and Synthesis  The search identified 25 relevant studies, 18 of which met all inclusion criteria. No publication bias or heterogeneity among these 18 studies were detected. The quality of each study that met the inclusion criteria was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Multiple meta-analyses were conducted using the random effect model on raw data in the StatsDirect statistical program.

Main Outcomes and Measures  No or short duration of breastfeeding and the incidence of childhood leukemia.

Results  The meta-analysis of all 18 studies indicated that compared with no or shorter breastfeeding, any breastfeeding for 6 months or longer was associated with a 19% lower risk for childhood leukemia (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.73-0.89). A separate meta-analysis of 15 studies indicated that ever breastfed compared with never breastfed was associated with an 11% lower risk for childhood leukemia (odds ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.84-0.94), although the definition of never breastfed differed between studies. All meta-analyses of subgroups of the 18 studies showed similar associations. Based on current meta-analyses results, 14% to 19% of all childhood leukemia cases may be prevented by breastfeeding for 6 months or more.

Conclusions and Relevance  Breastfeeding is a highly accessible, low-cost public health measure. This meta-analysis that included studies not featured in previous meta-analyses on the subject indicates that promoting breastfeeding for 6 months or more may help lower childhood leukemia incidence, in addition to its other health benefits for children and mothers.