Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., M.S.

New medical study has discovered that an Indian spice may actually halt the spread of breast cancer to the lungs and improve the effectiveness of ongoing medication.

Leading this spice brigade is turmeric (haldi) that has high doses of curcumin --the antidote to breast cancer.

Scientists in England have carried out preliminary tests on mice.

Among a control group who were not treated, 96 per cent went on to develop visible signs of lung cancer, while treatment with the chemotherapy drug Taxol, "modestly reduced" the incidence.

But those given curcumin alone or curcumin plus Taxol had far fewer signs of the disease.

Dr Mark Matfield, scientific consultant at the International Cancer Research told The Independent, "The finding that curcumin can decrease the spread of cancer when it is treated with Taxol is really interesting and potentially very important".

Curcumin works by shutting down a protein active in the spread of breast cancer.

It also appears to reverse a "side-effect" of commonly prescribed chemotherapy, whose prolonged use may actually help to spread the disease.

Curcumin breaks down the dose, making the therapy less toxic, but the drug stays just as powerful in fighting cancer.

Reference

Ramachandran C, Rodriguez S, Ramachandran R, Raveendran Nair PK, Fonseca H, Khatib Z, Escalon E, Melnick SJ. Expression profiles of apoptotic genes induced by curcumin in human breast cancer and mammary epithelial cell lines. Anticancer Res. 2005 Sep-Oct;25(5):3293-302.

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