62-year-old Palo Alto resident Howard Cohen began his unorthodox self-treatment shortly after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999. A physical theorist who now works in software engineering, Cohen decided to educate himself about the disease in the hopes of finding an alternative way to treat the cancer.
While researching possible methods of fighting prostate cancer, he read about a Swedish study that indicated a compound in human milk is lethal to tumor cells in rats.
Knowing that human milk boosts a baby's immune system, Cohen reasoned that breast milk could help him in his battle against cancer.
He saw an almost immediate improvement in his blood tests after a friend who was a new mother began giving him two ounces of breast milk a day. Specifically, his PSA or prostate specific antigen count, a chemical produced only by prostate cells and prostate cancer cells made fell dramatically. He continued to take the milk and soon had a PSA level approaching normal.