SCIENCE FILE: An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment. : Human Milk Component Kills Cancer Cells, Research Finds
<i> From Times staff and wire reports</i>
A component in human milk may be a cancer fighter, according to laboratory experiments in Sweden. Researchers testing the effects of human milk against cells in test tubes found that an ingredient called monomeric alpha-lactalbumin, or MAL, caused cancer cells to die.
Researchers at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm found that MAL triggers a process called apoptosis in cancer cells, causing them to commit suicide, without affecting healthy cells. In one experiment, the scientists reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98% of human lung cancer cells were killed.
