due to many requests i will give a longer version of the story about this
case.

i went to see a client who was not bf but feeding breastmilk due to the
typical hospital mismanagement of breastfeeding. after various other things i
put on a nipple shield, put the baby on, convinced him this plan was worth
trying and voila, happy breastfeeding baby and happy breastfeeding mother.
during my visit she mentioned that her husband has cancer. this mother has
such a terrific milk supply that in addition to providing all the milk her
baby needed, she has (take a deep breath now) 500 ounces of milk stored in
the freezer, just from the first six weeks of this baby's life. she had so
much milk she has pumped colostrum frozen.

i spoke to her about giving her husband breastmilk, and she said she had
already thought of it but wondered how it could help. her husband has
bronchio-alveolar carcinoma, a rare form of lung cancer *not* associated with
smoking. he is on an experimental drug treatment (VEG-F) and was diagnosed
more than a year ago, and is considered stage 4. he did not respond to other
treatments, but is responding some to the VEG-F.

they spoke to his oncologist who wanted information about why i recommended
this, and here is a summary of what i told her. you have to understand that
even getting such a respectful response was very pleasing to me. i assumed
that it was more likely that she would say, what, are you crazy? forget it.

some time back on lactnet someone posted about the work of anders hakannson
in lund, sweden, who did research showing that a modified molecular form of
alphalactalbumin caused tumor cells to die (by apoptosis). his further
research has shown that the cell does not need to be in this modified form
(does not need to be in the multimeric form).

they showed that the molecule binds to all cells but only goes inside tumor
cells. inside the tumor cells the molecule causes cell death by apoptosis
(programmed cell death, as opposed to necrosis, the other way in which cells
die) by two different methods, activating caspases (proteases the execute the
cell death program, which is what apoptosis is) or by going to the nucleus of
the cell and initiating cleavage of the DNA. they don't know which is more
important.

so my thought is that this might be able to find its way in the body to the
location of tumor cells and kill them. is this possible? what are the reasons
it would not work? would the milk be changed in the digestive system? the pH
of a baby's digestive system is 3-4 and that of an adult is 1. the
alphalactalbumin will be denatured completely if the pH is too low, but it
could well survive the pH of 1 according to anders. whether it could then
travel to the tumor site and be active is unknown, and that is what anders h.
is trying to study now. he has to figure out how to track this protein in the
blood and see what it does. then it might be clearer what the implications
are for cancer treatment.

i also recommended that the husband take the milk for other reasons. it could
be palliative in the sense that it could aid digestion and be a food most
easily tolerated. it would also be an adjunct treatment in that it could
cause healing of the gut during treatment. it could also strengthen his
immune system overall, and we know that the body is constantly fighting tumor
cells on its own, even without other treatments, so increasing his body's
ability to do that would be good.

i also think that in the same way a woman's body knows how to make
age-adjusted milk for her preemie (even when the baby doesn't nurse, even
when the mother and baby are physically separated), that here has to be a
possibility that the wife's body might know how to make milk for the husband
that might be suited to his health needs as well. and why not? do we know the
mechanism by which the milk is adjusted to suit the unique needs of each
infant? no. so i don't think we can discount it either.

i have recommended either 4 or 8 ounces per day, starting with the oldest
colostrum and transitional milk. i like to think there is a certain poetic
symmetry here, that she has a tremendous milk supply and a use for it as
well.

the most recent study is probably the most relevant.

PMID: 10037730, UI: 99156920
Exp Cell Res 1999 Feb 1;246(2):451-60

Multimeric alpha-lactalbumin from human milk induces apoptosis through a
direct effect on cell nuclei.

Hakansson A, Andreasson J, Zhivotovsky B, Karpman D, Orrenius S, Svanborg C

carol brussel IBCLC
laura nevada lactation
denver colorado
where today's phone message first thing was a heartfelt thank you and happy
mother's day from yesterdays FORMER babywise client

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