Honeybee venom and its main peptide melittin have been shown to have anticancer effects in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast cancer models. In the 2020 Duffy et al. study, researchers found that melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes within 60 minutes, and venom from bumblebees, which contains no melittin, did not kill the cancer cells even at high concentrations.

The study used venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Perth Western Australia, Ireland and England.

On the "not a practical treatment" side, review literature is clear about the limitations of raw melittin. Its clinical application is hindered by systemic and hemolytic toxicity, rapid degradation in plasma, poor pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity, necessitating the development of targeted delivery strategies to enable safe and effective treatment. Another review notes that melittin treatment showed limitations including toxicity, non-specificity, degradation, ineffective systemic transport, low bioavailability, and hemolysis, and that multiple strategies have been used to combat these problems.

On the pivot to modified versions: Melittin-based conjugates, such as PEGylated versions, show potential in enhancing therapeutic outcomes and minimizing toxicity across various cancer models. More recently, a team has engineered a targeted form of melittin that can be safely injected directly into the bloodstream in preclinical studies.