About 100 times less toxic than chemotherapy, turmeric extract (curcumin) has been shown to be more effective at killing colorectal cancer stem cells in patients than a popular combination of conventional drugs.
British researchers have made a major breakthrough in cancer research by demonstrating for the first time that curcumin is not only an effective adjunct to improving conventional chemotherapy, but is even more effective.
Details about the study
As published this month in the journal "Cancer Letters and titled," the study evaluated what is known as the "curcumin-derived agent," the primary polyphenol in turmeric, as a possible adjunct to improve conventional treatment of colorectal cancer with chemotherapy.
"Curcumin inhibits cancer stem cell phenotypes in ex vivo models of colorectal liver metastases and is clinically safe and tolerable in combination with FOLFOX chemotherapy," the researchers report. The study design and results were summarized as follows:
Here, we used patient-derived colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) to assess whether curcumin may provide an additional benefit over 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) in cancer stem cell models ( CSC).
The combination of curcumin with FOLFOX chemotherapy was then clinically evaluated in a Phase I dose escalation study. Curcumin alone and in combination significantly reduces the number of spheroids in CRLM CSC models, and decreases the number of cells with high activity aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDHhigh / CD133?).
The addition of curcumin to oxaliplatin / 5-FU enhanced the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in a proportion of patient-derived explants, while reducing the expression of markers associated with ALDH and CD133 stem cells.
The Phase I dose escalation study found that curcumin was a safe and tolerable adjunct to FOLFOX chemotherapy in patients with CRLM (n = 12) at doses up to 2 grams per day.
As you can see above, researchers have discovered that curcumin is both a safe and effective adjunct in the treatment of colorectal cancer.
They noted the importance of these results by emphasizing that this was "the first time that curcumin has been recognized as being able to improve oxaliplatin / 5-FU-based chemotherapy in models directly derived from patients to whom treatments are ultimately intended. "