Breast milk may hold cure for stomach cancer

Scientists in Sweden recently discovered that a compound found in breast milk can destroy cancerous stomach cells.

The scientists at the University of Lund in Sweden tested the effects of Hamlet - a substance found in breast milk - on patients diagnosed with stomach cancer. The early results found that patients were shedding dead, cancerous cells through their urine within a few days.

Unlike more traditional methods of treating cancer, in which harmful poisons are pumped through the body in order to attack cancerous cells, the hamlet compound attacks those same cancerous cells without harming the body.

Breast milk contains the alpha-lactalbumin protein, a protein that acts differently in the stomach than it would anywhere else. In the stomach it attacks the cancerous cells through bypassing their outer-defenses so it can then directly attack the mitochondria and the cell nucleus. It then starves the cell of energy, reprogramming it so it weakens and eventually dies.

A full trial will soon be held using the Hamlet compound against a placebo drug, with the hope it could one day replace chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Scientists believe the compound may also be effective in the battle against bowel and cervical cancer.