Often deemed a "miracle fruit" due to its many healthy qualities, among other many avocado benefits, researchers have now found a new one: the fruit might actually hold the key to ultimately halting and even curing one of the deadliest forms of cancer, leukemia.
New research regarding avocado benefits in the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, has revealed that molecules that derive from the fruit could be an effective way to treat leukemia, as a new study has shown that there's a particular fat in avocados that can successfully fight myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare and deadly form of cancer that, within five years of diagnosis, takes the lives of 90 percent of senior patients over 65.
Science Daily reports that the new study about avocado benefits was recently published in the journal Cancer Research under the name "Targeting Mitochondria with Avocatin B Induces Selective Leukemia Cell Death," focusing on the creation of a new drug aimed at fighting the disease.
According to The Washington Post, researchers behind the avocado benefits study have stated that this particular fat found in the fruit targets the leukemia stem cells all while leaving the healthy cells in the body unharmed, which means a major improvement from chemotherapy, which can even lower the immune system because it basically kills off cells regardless of how good or bad they might be.
"The stem cell is really the cell that drives the disease," said one of the researchers of the avocado benefits study, Professor Paul Spagnuolo, in a statement, according to The Daily Mail. "The stem cell is largely responsible for the disease developing and it's the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse."
"Not only does avocatin B eliminate the source of AML, but its targeted, selective effects make it less toxic to the body, too," Spagnuolo continued.
This is only the first round of trials about a possible leukemia drug reaping from avocado benefits, which could still be years in the making.
