alpha lactalbumin and lactoferrin

friendoffighter

I am posting this info that I've gathered for two reasons:  one, in an effort to share some of my excitement on an emerging feild of cancer research, and two, in hopes that others of you might share your take on the research papers, and possible ways to successfully implement use of these two common proteins in cancer therapy.

So, this will probably end up being quite long-winded, but I've spent a lot of time reading published research articles, as well as general websites trying to get an understanding of of this coud work for my dear friend.  She was just diagnosed as stage IV (after two years NED with a very aggressive cancer, metaplastic), and she is just now in the process of getting a chemo plan, so I don't think she is quite ready to implement something alternative.  I'm hoping that my plan will be something she'll want to try, and that it will help her.

I first heard of breast milk as a cancer therapy about a month ago.  Upon further research, it appears that scientists stumbled upon this a few years back.  It is thought that a protein in breast milk (human alpha lactalbumin) combines with oleic acid (the fat is breast milk, as well as the same fat in olive oil, and peanut oil, among other things) in an acidic environment (such as what would be found in a newborns stomach), to create a tumorcidal complex HAMLET (Human Alpha lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumors).  This has proven to have great success in vitro, killing over 40 types of tumor cells, and causing zero harm to healthy cells.  Next, researchers found a bovine (cow) alpha lactalbumin, and found they could create BAMLET.  BAMLET had the same successes of killing tumors.  Seems to me that this was evolution's way of conquering cancer, at least in newborns?  

Around the same time, scientists were finding success is using whey protein as a cancer therapy in vivo. I did some research, and alpha lactalbumin (AL for short) is a protein found in whey.  (Whey, for those not in the know, [which was me prior to looking it up] is one component of milk, you know, like curds and whey.  It's the liquid separated out in your yogurt, and leftover after making cheese.) AL is about 25% of the protein found is whey, there's also lactoferrin which is about 1% of the protein, and a handful of others.  (this site details the components of whey protein: http://www.wheyoflife.org/facts.cfm#8) 

 So, AL is the common denominator in these areas of research.  I have this very strong feeling that this protein could be a promising natural therapy, with no side effects.  But I'm not a doctor, and maybe even a doctor wouldn't know.  Obviously this would need more research, and like many of you and your loved ones, my friend just doesn't have the time to wait.  

Lactoferrin also has had some research surrounding that, which has shown it to improve the immune system, and possible treat tumors.  I have just started looking into this protein, so I truthfully don't know much about this. 

One of the obvious questions I had was:  If lots of people drink milk and still get cancer, then what gives?  Well, alpha lactalbumin is only present at 1g/L in milk. You'd have to drink 30 liters of milk per day to get the amount of protein the USDA recommends, strictly from AL (plus you'd get way too much protein when you add in all the others). In whey protein it's about 25%, so even in if whey pretein was your sole protein, you'd only be getting about 8g per day.  I have found a purified AL powder, which the manufacturer states is undenatured (ie, it it's natural state), so you could take 30g of AL per day... Undenatured is important, since the protein would need to be in the right folding formation to properly bind to the tumor cells.

Other questions:  What would happen to the tumor if she could flood her system with this every day?  Could it at the very least take care of the micrometatstases floating in her blood, reducing her number of new tumors?  Would she need to take it with some peanut oil, to mimick the fat in breast milk?  Some research has shown that you don't need AL to be in the BAMLET conformation for it to be tumoricidal. Can your body absorb AL/BAMLET, or is it something that nees to be injected directly into the tumor?  Seems against nature if that's true...

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear more brain storming on this idea.  I just have this feeling that it could act as a natural chemo, to complement a traditional cancer fighting regimen.   I am a scientist by trade, so I realize that I may be more drawn to research articles, and maybe more able to understand them than the average person, but I hope there are some people out there that can shed some more light on whether they think this is a viable option, or not.

Here's some of the links I've based my thoughts on:

The pure alpha lactalbumin: 

http://www.daviscofoods.com/fractions/alpha-beta.cfm

Research of HAMLET/BAMLET/whey:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19836376
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20172551
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20186341
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20053771

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~andersh/research/milkcancer.asp

http://www.mig.lu.se/svanborg.hamlet.html

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/23/1_MeetingAbstracts/524.18

Thanks for reading.  I could be way off base, but I just can't shake the feeling that this might be a future miracle in cancer therapy.  I would love to wait and see what the researchers find out, bt, as I said, we just can't afford to wait...