Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world causing about 800,000 deaths per year worldwide according to the WHO. It is especially common in the "economically developed countries" where life style and diet, constitute risk factors favoring this form of cancer. A study by French scientists published in PloS ONE Magazine now found certain probiotic, fermented milk, read yoghurt, can kill gastric cancer cells.

Diet modulation may have always been part of a preemptive strategy to lower digestive cancer incidence. But with recent findings confirm this for dairies from propionibacteria. In the study they were shown to trigger apoptosis of human colon cancer cells, via the release of short-chain fatty acids acetate and propionate.

The team designed an exclusively with P. freudenreichii fermented milk and showed its lethal effect on HGT-1 a human gastric cancer cell line in-vitro. The cells showed several indications to have undergone apoptosis, a programmed cell death. It also left the cancer cells more vulnerable to other chemotherapeutic agents as camptothecin, a drug used in gastric cancer chemotherapy.

Conclusively the teams suggests probiotic fermented milk products as functional food to prevent gastric cancer and potentialize therapeutic treatments, if needed.