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Last Updated: Apr 20, 2011 - 9:38:09 AM |
Curcumin in turmeric, a yellow spice widely used in Indian cuisine, has long been touted for its health benefits. A study recently found that turmeric may have the potential of stopping the spread of breast cancer.
The study was conducted by Dr. Bharat Aggarwal and colleagues at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The study showed that curcumin, an active component in turmeric, helped prevent breast cancer from spreading to the lungs in mice.
In the study, Dr. Aggarwal’s team injected mice with human breast cancer cells. The cells were taken from people with breast cancer having already spread to the lungs.
Then, the tumors were allowed to grow before they were removed. After the surgery, the mice in four groups were assigned either curcumin, curcumin along with the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel (branded as Taxol), simply Taxol, or no treatment.
As a result, 50 percent of the mice receiving curcumin only and 78 percent of the mice receiving both curcumin and Taxol stopped breast cancer from spreading to the lung.
In comparison, 5 percent of the mice not receiving any treatment, and 25 percent of the mice receiving only Taxol stopped the cancer from spreading to the lungs.
Previous studies showed that people who eat diets full of turmeric are linked to lower rates of breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer, indicating that turmeric has a preventive effect against cancer.
The current study was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Breast Cancer Research Program.
The results were presented in the fourth Era of Hope meeting for the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program held on June 8-11, 2005 in Philadelphia.
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