Drinking milk may help stop cancer from spreading to bones, according to Australian researchers.

A team at the ANZAC research institute found that mice with a calcium deficiency that had breast cancer were more likely to have the cancer metastasize to the skeleton.

Studies in animals often do not produce results that transfer directly to people.

According to the researchers, about 70 percent of patients who develop advanced breast cancer will also get tumors in the bone.

Researcher Colin Dunstan also found that in mice with a low-calcium diet more bone is affected.

"Many older women ... are known to be calcium deficient due to low calcium dietary intake or due to vitamin D deficiency. These women could be at increased risk for the devastating effects of bone metastases," he said.

Their findings were presented in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.