New Study Reveals Encouraging News for Breast Cancer Patients

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

Researchers at the University Of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Centre have found that curcumin, which gives curry its yellow colour, inhibits metastasis in the lungs of mice afflicted with breast cancer.

Researchers found curcumin not only stopped progression of the disease to the lungs, but also appeared to reverse the effects of Taxol, a commonly prescribed chemotherapy for breast cancer that may trigger spread of the disease with use over a long period of time.

How the Study was Conducted

Researchers studied 60 mice with breast cancer, which were randomly assigned to one of four groups - control group, taxol only, curcumin only and the combination of taxol and curcumin.

After the tumors grew to 10 mm in size, they were surgically removed, and the mice were fed powdered curcumin.

Macroscopic lung metastasis, or metastasis that is visible to the naked eye, was seen in 96 per cent of the mice in the control group.

Treatment using taxol alone only "modestly reduced" the incidence of metastases, while the group using curcumin alone and curcumin plus taxol "significantly reduced" both the incidence and numbers of visible lung metastases.

Microscopic metastasis, or metastasis that is visible only when using a microscope, was found in the lungs of 28 per cent of mice treated with the combination of curcumin and taxol, and there was no macroscopic disease present.

The micro-metastases present consisted of only a few cells, suggesting that the combination inhibited the growth of breast cancer tumour cells that were in the lung before the tumours were removed.

How it Works

In a previous study published in the August 15 issue of the journal Cancer, the researchers found that when the nuclear factor-kappa B (nf-kb) - a powerful protein known to promote the inflammatory response necessary to cause breast cancer to spread - is shut down, cancer strains are unable to grow and cells are pushed to commit suicide.

The mechanism in this curcumin study works the same way.

Taxol activated the nf-kb in breast cancer cells, while curcumin stopped this activation by blocking the protein known as 'ikk' that switched on the nf-kb, demonstrating how curcumin and taxol work against one another.

Taxol produced the inflammatory response, triggering metastasis, and curcumin suppressed it, causing cell death.

The study will be published in the October 15 issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

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