As you may already know, curcumin, one of the main ingredients in the popular spice turmeric, has been getting a lot of media attention lately for it’s new-found anti-cancer effects. Now, according to recent results published in Clinical Cancer Research, treatment with a combination of curcumin and the standard chemotherapy drug Taxol, has been shown to halt the spread of breast cancer cells to the lungs of lab mice. According to WebMD, the study–

…included 60 female mice that received injections of human breast cancer cells. This caused the growth of tumors. When the tumors had grown to about the size of a pea, they were surgically removed.

Then, the mice were split into four groups. The first group got food mixed with curcumin. The second group got curcumin-laced food and the chemotherapy drug Taxol. The third group got Taxol but no curcumin. The fourth group of mice didn’t get Taxol or curcumin.

…Five weeks later, the researchers checked to see if cancer had spread to the lungs of the mice. Advanced breast cancer often spreads to the lungs.

As is to be expected, nearly all of the mice that didn’t receive any treatment were found to have tumors in their lungs, but those that received the combination of Taxol and curcumin did better than any of the other groups, developing significantly fewer lung tumors – at least visible ones. Twenty-eight percent of the mice in the curcumin/Taxol group had microscopic tumors that could only be seen through a microscope, but the researchers postulate that these may have metastasized before surgery and were then effectively blocked by curcumin and Taxol.

Apparently no toxic dose was found for curcumin in this study, which just makes sense when you consider that turmeric, by way of curry, has been a staple part of the diet in India for generation upon generation.

SOURCE: WebMD – Spice Ingredient May Cut Breast Cancer Spread

Technorati Tags: Alternative Medicine, Cancer, Curcumin, Nutrition, Nutrition & Cancer