Researchers may have discovered a remedy for some of the harshest side effects of chemotherapy, and it comes from a surprising origin: human breast milk.
“Human breast milk contains up to 200 different types of sugars,” explained Steven Townsend, a chemistry professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “However, we have only been researching them for about a decade.”
Through the study of these sugars, Townsend aims to develop new treatments for various health and industrial purposes. “The main question is how we can begin to medicate people without causing harm,” he emphasized.
Chemotherapy is infamous for causing severe side effects. Townsend shared, “When my mom was undergoing breast cancer treatment, she said, ‘I don’t mind losing my hair or nails, what’s unbearable is the constant, violent diarrhea.” This stomach condition is due to mucositis, an inflammation that destroys stomach lining cells and exposes them to stomach acid.
“We understand why chemotherapy patients become ill,” explained Townsend. “And we have discovered molecules in breast milk that can prevent this.”
Photo of a cancer patient after undergoing chemotherapy. Sugars in breast milk may offer relief for some of the most severe side effects of chemo, researchers hope.
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In particular, Townsend and his colleague, Fang Yan, discovered that a sugar called 2′-fucosyllactose may protect these lining cells and reduce the damage from chemotherapy. Their study, published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology in October 2022, found that 2′-fucosyllactose successfully averted stomach-lining cell death in mice with induced mucositis.
If these sugars were given to patients along with chemotherapy, it could alleviate their suffering from these side effects. “Perhaps they would only have diarrhea once a day instead of 50 times,” Townsend suggested.
It’s not just cancer patients who endure severe side effects from treatments.
“A few years ago, my wife was bitten by a brown recluse spider. The bite became infected, resulting in surgical removal of the tissue on her leg and treatment with the antibiotic vancomycin,” Townsend recounted. “She was sick for 24 days after. Vancomycin wipes out your infection, but it also totally destroys your microbiome.
“Antibiotics are tremendous, but maybe there are natural protections that can safeguard us as effectively without causing harm?”
Breast milk harbors a unique mix of “good” bacteria that help infants form their own microbiomes and defend against infections.
“The microbiome in breast milk is nurtured by the sugars present in it,” Townsend added.
