Curcumin may be promising treatment for cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Curcumin, a compound found in turmeric, may be a promising treatment for a variety of cancers and other inflammatory diseases, according to an international review published in Molecules.

Gautam Sethi, PhD, of Curtin University in Australia looked at past clinical trials that used curcumin in patients with cancer and concluded that it was a safe and effective method of treating cancer.

“To treat cancer you need multi-targeted agents, better than mono-targeted agents, which have been used for the past few years,” Dr. Sethi said. “They are more effective in treating cancer as it has been found that several genes are mutated in a given cancer.”

Oncogenic genes, he claimed, can be deregulated in cancer using curcumin. Therefore, it is effective for patients with multiple myeloma and those with fatal pancreatic cancer, for which there are no drug treatments.

Curcumin counteracts the effects of cyclophosphamide, however, and is therefore not as effective in patients undergoing breast cancer treatment.

Dr. Sethi recommends that people use turmeric more often in everyday cooking.