> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodconsumer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Curry Compound Kills Esophageal Cancer Cells
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/curry_compound_kills_esophageal_cancer_cells_291020090744/
- Published: 2009-10-29T19:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:47:48.000Z
- Description: Curcumin, the yellow pigment in turmeric, began destroying cultured esophageal cancer cells within 24 hours in Cork Cancer Research Centre work published in the British Journal of Cancer. The cells died by a route different from the apoptosis other phytochemicals trigger.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Phytochemicals, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

Thursday Oct 29, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- A particular curry compound is found to be able to kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting that it may be a potent, anticancer agent that can be used to treat the disease.

For the study, researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Center in Ireland treated cultured esophageal cancer cells with curcumin - the yellow pigment found in the spice turmeric.

They found the chemical compounds started to destroy cancer cells within 24 hours. The cancer cells were found to autolyze with curcumin present; the study has been published in The British Journal of Cancer.

Previous studies found curcumin may help prevent and treat colorectal cancer, diabetes, and dementia, among other medical conditions. However, the anticancer potency is not strong enough to qualify the chemical as an anticancer drug.

  
Sharon McKenna, lead author of the study, said there is a potential for scientists to develop a drug to treat esophageal cancer based on curcumin.

McKenna and colleagues found the way curcumin caused cancer cells to die is different from the way many other chempreventative phytochemicals do, which often cause a poptosis or a process of programmed cell death.

Esophageal cancer will be diagnosed in 16,470 people in the U.S; the disease will kill 14,530 in 2009.

Source:

Br J Cancer. 2009 Nov 3;101(9):1585-95.  

Curcumin induces apoptosis-independent death in esophageal cancer cells.

  
O'Sullivan-Coyne G, O'Sullivan GC, O'Donovan TR, Piwocka K, McKenna SL.  
Leslie C. Quick Laboratory, Cork Cancer Research Centre, BioSciences Institute, University College Cork and Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland.

*By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton*