Correspondence to: Richard L. Nelson, M.D., F.A.C.S., Department of Surgery, M/C 957, University of Illinois Hospital, 1740 W. Taylor St., Rm. 2204, Chicago, IL 60612-7238 (e-mail: altohorn{at}uic.edu).
The review of breast cancer risk following breast feeding was authoritative, timely, and very thoroughly researched. Yet, although a plethora of experimental designs clearly exist, there was enough clustering of similar experiments to allow a more rigorous estimate of combined effect than was presented in this review by Lipworth et al. (1). Unfortunately, the tables contained no crude data so that, as a reader, it was also impossible to perform a meta-analysis of the unadjusted data. Could the authors, with these many studies still in hand, calculate a quantitative estimate of the combined effect in the various categories of exposure to breast-feeding, rather than just present what must be viewed as a qualitative impression that no overall association could be discerned?
REFERENCE
1
Lipworth L, Bailey LR, Trichopoulos D. History of breast-feeding in relation to breast cancer risk: a review of the epidemiologic literature. J Natl Cancer Inst 2000;92:30212.
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