While the compound is known to have powerful anti-inflammatory properties, some different studies suggest it may also slow the spread of cancer, improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs and protect healthy cells from the side-effects of radiotherapy.
Laboratory tests, after several years of research, had earlier revealed the effect of curcumin in boosting the ability of chemotherapy drugs in killing bowel cancer cells.
Faulty cells normally die through apoptosis or programmed suicide when proteins known as caspases are switched on in these cells; curcumin, however, is believed to use an alternative cell signaling system to make these cells digest themselves.
The team, during a joint research conducted in Cancer Research UK and the University of Leicester, is to recruit about 40 patients with bowel cancer that has spread to the liver and examine them by giving curcumin pills seven days before starting standard chemotherapy treatment.
“Once bowel cancer has spread it is very difficult to treat, partly because the side effects of chemotherapy can limit how long patients can have treatment, but curcumin might increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy,” said the study leader professor William Steward.
“The result is exciting because it could mean giving lower doses, so patients have fewer side effects and can keep having treatment for longer,” he explained.
Curry had long been thought to have healing powers in certain cultures and has traditionally been used as an alternative remedy for a wide range of problems including liver and digestive disorders, allergies and acne.