--- title: Breastfeeding and Leukemia in Children: Study Finds Breast Milk Link description: Childhood leukemia is growing, but a new review finds that breastfeeding and breast milk are linked to lower risks of the cancer canonical: https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-01T15:45:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:16.889Z article:section: Health og:title: Breastfeeding Linked to a Lower Risk of Cancer in Kids og:description: Childhood leukemia is growing, but a new review finds that breastfeeding and breast milk are linked to lower risks of the cancer og:url: https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breastfeeding Linked to a Lower Risk of Cancer in Kids twitter:description: Childhood leukemia is growing, but a new review finds that breastfeeding and breast milk are linked to lower risks of the cancer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Breastfeeding Linked to a Lower Risk of Cancer in Kids > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=433020fb-f040-40eb-a0c9-280935eb2164&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jun 1, 2015 3:45 PM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jun 1, 2015 3:45 PM UTC Childhood leukemia is rare, but it’s the second-biggest killer of children, after accidents. It’s increasing in incidence by 0.9% every year. “We still don’t know what causes childhood leukemia,” says Efrat Amitay, PhD of the University of Haifa’s School of Public Health in Israel. “There have been all kinds of hypotheses about it, and one of the things that emerged in the research is breastfeeding.” In their [new investigation](http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1025) published Monday in _JAMA Pediatrics_, Amitay and a colleague analyzed 18 studies on the topic of breastfeeding and childhood leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer. The number of childhood leukemia cases in the papers exceeded 10,000, with more than 17,000 controls. They found that breastfeeding a child for six months or longer was associated with a 19% lower risk for childhood leukemia, compared to children who had been breastfed for less time or not at all. Another of their analyses revealed that children who are ever breastfed, compared to those who were never breastfed, had an 11% lower risk for childhood leukemia. For a food source so widely accessible to infants, science knows surprisingly little about how breast milk actually works, Amitay says. “There’s still a lot to learn about the biology of it,” she says. But evidence continues to mount that breast milk is a live substance full of immune-promoting and anti-inflammatory compounds, helping develop the immune system and a healthy microbiome, the study says. Baby formula, on the other hand, also seems to change gut microbes, but not for the better: [research shows](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10231858) that breast-fed babies have more natural-killer cells—a type of immune cell that targets and destroys cancer cells—than children fed with formula. Newer still are the animal studies finding that [breast milk contains stem cells](http://advances.nutrition.org/content/5/6/770.abstract) that may be similar to embryonic stem cells, meaning they can change inside an infant’s body and perform where they’re needed, Amitay says. “When you talk about breast milk, it’s more accessible and less controversial than embryonic stem cells,” she says. “It’s still all very, very at the beginning, but I think it’s very exciting, too.” ### See the Funniest and Weirdest Baby Photos  Shot for TIME, 2015 Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Shot for Huggies, 2011 Evan Kafka  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2011 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/"},"headline":"Breastfeeding Linked to a Lower Risk of Cancer in Kids","datePublished":"2015-06-01T15:45:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:16.889Z","description":"Children who consume breast milk for six months have a lower risk for childhood leukemia than those who don't","url":"https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/","keywords":["Cancer","breastfeeding","leukemia"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cancer/","name":"Cancer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3901565/breastfeeding-childhood-cancer-leukemia/","name":"Breastfeeding Linked to a Lower Risk of Cancer in Kids"}}]}] ```