(Natural News) Scientists have long debated whether the hormone therapy that is used to treat breast cancer actually kills all of the breast cancer cells completely or simply puts them into a dormant "sleeper" state. However, a new study has found that both camps could be right and that these drugs kill some cells while switching others into a sleeper state.

This was the conclusion of a study looking at 50,000 individual cells of human breast cancer that was carried out by researchers from institutions such as Imperial College London, The University of Milan, and the Yonsei University College of Medicine. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

These hormone therapies are typically given to patients who have estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. In these types of cancers, the cancer cells grow and spread through interaction with the estrogen hormone. They make up around two thirds of all types of breast cancer.