Curcumin and Melanoma
Curcumin and Melanoma
Can a spice help fight cancer?
By Cory Hatch
7/11/05
The Asian spice that gives curried rice its bright yellow color could someday provide researchers with a new
way to fight skin cancer. Small doses of curcumin, a spice ground from the turmeric root and a common ingredient in
curry, not only stopped the growth of melanoma cells in the lab but also caused the cells to self-destruct, say
researchers from the University of Texas's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The researchers tested curcumin on lab-grown melanoma cells to see if the spice could stop the cells from surviving
and reproducing. The more curcumin they added to the melanoma, the more cells died. Unlike normal cells, cancer
cells grow uncontrollably and do not self-destruct. Increased doses of curcumin also stopped the melanoma cells
from reproducing.
One coauthor of the paper, which will be published in the August 15 issue of the journal Cancer, Bharat Aggarwal,
said curcumin is intriguing to researchers because of its low toxicity. While most forms of chemotherapy cause
serious adverse reactions in cancer patients, studies have shown that people can tolerate large amounts of
curcumin with no ill effects. Curcumin also works as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory agent.
"People from countries like India have been taking it for thousands of years," says Aggarwal. "It is well tolerated.
Here is a completely nontoxic anti-inflammatory agent."
Doctors diagnose roughly 53,600 people with melanoma each year. The cancerous cells develop as irregularly
shaped and colored moles on the surface of the skin. The cancer resists many chemotherapy treatments and can
metastasize, spreading to other organs in the body.
Aggarwal and his colleagues believe that curcumin blocks the signals a cancer cell needs to survive. David Fisher,
director of the melanoma program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said that looking at how curcumin blocks
these signals was one of the more important discoveries in this paper.
In the meantime, Aggarwal and his colleagues continue to tests curcumin on a wide variety of cancers, including
breast cancer.
Find out more: The National Cancer Institute has an extensive web page on melanoma.
Can a spice help fight cancer?
By Cory Hatch
7/11/05
The Asian spice that gives curried rice its bright yellow color could someday provide researchers with a new
way to fight skin cancer. Small doses of curcumin, a spice ground from the turmeric root and a common ingredient in
curry, not only stopped the growth of melanoma cells in the lab but also caused the cells to self-destruct, say
researchers from the University of Texas's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The researchers tested curcumin on lab-grown melanoma cells to see if the spice could stop the cells from surviving
and reproducing. The more curcumin they added to the melanoma, the more cells died. Unlike normal cells, cancer
cells grow uncontrollably and do not self-destruct. Increased doses of curcumin also stopped the melanoma cells
from reproducing.
One coauthor of the paper, which will be published in the August 15 issue of the journal Cancer, Bharat Aggarwal,
said curcumin is intriguing to researchers because of its low toxicity. While most forms of chemotherapy cause
serious adverse reactions in cancer patients, studies have shown that people can tolerate large amounts of
curcumin with no ill effects. Curcumin also works as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory agent.
"People from countries like India have been taking it for thousands of years," says Aggarwal. "It is well tolerated.
Here is a completely nontoxic anti-inflammatory agent."
Doctors diagnose roughly 53,600 people with melanoma each year. The cancerous cells develop as irregularly
shaped and colored moles on the surface of the skin. The cancer resists many chemotherapy treatments and can
metastasize, spreading to other organs in the body.
Aggarwal and his colleagues believe that curcumin blocks the signals a cancer cell needs to survive. David Fisher,
director of the melanoma program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said that looking at how curcumin blocks
these signals was one of the more important discoveries in this paper.
In the meantime, Aggarwal and his colleagues continue to tests curcumin on a wide variety of cancers, including
breast cancer.
Find out more: The National Cancer Institute has an extensive web page on melanoma.
Save Your Skin with... Curcumin! |