Breast Milk Component Kills Cancer Cells

May 25, 2011
Shannon DeKeuster

Human Breast Milk's Surprising Properties - Melissa Stampa Photography

Research shows that a complex formed from a protein and a fatty acid found in human breast milk causes cancer cells to self-destruct.

The Discovery

In 1995, while researchers at Lund University in Sweden were studying the antibacterial properties of breast milk, they found that the milk killed lung cancer cells in vitro. After seeing these results, researchers tested human, primate, canine, and mouse cancer cell lines and found that breast milk reduced their viability by more than 90%. In later research, HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cells) was identified as the cancer killing agent responsible within breast milk for cancer cell death.

The Science

HAMLET is a complex formed from a combined protein (alpha-lactalbumin) and a fatty acid (oleic acid) which are both found in human breast milk. This complex has been proven to cause programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in cancer cells, while leaving healthy, properly functioning cells intact, according to a study conducted by research scientists at Lund University and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, published in 2010.

This study was conducted using A549 lung carcinoma cells in vitro. Neither the protein nor the fatty acid alone have been shown to bind with cancer cells, nor initiate cell death, and it is currently unknown whether this complex forms spontaneously within breast milk, or is initiated only in an environment with a distinct PH level, such as the acidic environment of an infant’s stomach.

Research scientists continued to experiment using this human breast milk complex in the fight against cancer. In a study of human glioblastoma (a specific brain cancer) tumors transplanted into rats, rats treated with HAMLET presented significantly smaller tumors (456mm vs 63mm) after eight weeks, and presented no signs of intracranial pressure, whereas those with no treatment presented progressively more pressure. More recently, clinical studies of HAMLET’s anti-tumor properties were conducted on humans with bladder cancer, who were found to excrete dead cancer cells through their urine after treatment.

The Current Climate

This research has been revolutionary in the way the scientific community thinks of both breast milk and cancer research. In the United States, however, there have been no studies to speak of on the effects of breast milk treatment in cancer patients, although the consumption of breast milk as an alternative therapy has been growing steadily. Most patients report an improvement in quality of life, while some assert that breast milk has left them cancer-free, although the verification of these statements presents some difficulty.

Sources

Hakansson, A., Zhivotovsky, B., Orrenius, S., Sabharwal, H., Svanborg, C. (1995) Apoptosis Induced by a Human Milk Protein. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92(August), 8064-8068
Mossberg, A., Puchades, M., Halskau, O., Baumann, A., Lanekoff, I., Chao, Y., Martinez, A., Svanborg, C., Karlsson, R. (2010). HAMLET Interacts with Lipid Membranes and Perturbs Their Structure and Integrity. PLoS ONE. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from the PLoSONE database.
Aits, S. (2010). HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) triggers autophagic tumor cell death. Lund University, Faculty of Medicine Doctoral Dissertation Series, 2010(53), 156
Fischer W, Gustafsson L, Mossberg AK, Gronli J, Mork S, Bjerkvig R, Svanborg C. (2004). Human Alpha-Lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor Cells (HAMLET) Kills Human Glioblastoma Cells in Brain Xenografts by an Apoptosis-Like Mechanism and Prolongs Survival. Cancer Research, 2004(March 15), 2105-2112

Shannon DeKeuster - I am a full time drug store manager and a certified pharmacy technician. I majored in Business Marketing and Spanish Literature and ...