Could breast milk hold the secret to curing cancer? Well that's exactly what a group of Swedish scientists are working on, and it's looking hopeful.
A group of scientists in Sweden are undertaking clinical trials to determine whether breast milk can be used to cure cancer.
Breast milks miraculous cancer-curing qualities were first discovered a few years ago, completely by accident, by a group of scientists who were trying to identify a new antimicrobial.
Finding that a compound in breast milk - which they've named HAMLET - killed off tumours, the team started focusing on this new, amazing discovery.
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Talking about the discovery, Professor Catharina Svanborg - who heads up team HAMLET - explained: "We were looking for novel antimicrobial agents, and new breast milk is a very good source of these. During one experiment we needed human cells and bacteria to be present, and we chose human tumour cells for practical reasons.
"To our amazement, when we added this compound of milk, the tumour cells died. It was a totally serendipitous discovery."
Excitingly, the team have now conducted treatment studies where they've seen effects against brain tumours, colon and bladder cancer in animals, and clinical studies on patients with skin papillomas and bladder cancer, which Professor Svanborg called "very encouraging indeed."
Best of all, unlike current cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, HAMLET targets the cancer cells but leaves the healthy cells unharmed. Professor Svanborg concluded: "There’s something magical about Hamlet’s ability to target tumour cells and kill them."
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