Groundbreaking Australian research has revealed how having children and breastfeeding reduces the risk a woman will develop an aggressive form of breast cancer.

There has long been evidence breastfeeding helps to reduce the risk of breast cancer, but the new research provides a biological explanation for the protection breastfeeding provides against triple-negative breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease.

Medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and co-author of the research, Dr Peter Savas, told 6PR Breakfast‘s Millsy and Karl the study found breastfeeding “trains some of the specialised immune cells that live in the breast to be particularly good at detecting and policing cells that are behaving abnormally”.

Press PLAY below to hear how breastfeeding provides protection against aggressive breast cancer

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