Cancer
A complex disorder that may affect any part of the body resulting from many different reasons and causing abnormal growth of cells in a particular body part is known as cancer.
It is the most commonly occurring disease worldwide affecting a large number of individuals every day and millions of individuals every year.
It may be inherited in a few cases but in most of the cases, cancer results from environmental influences disturbing genes and the proteins of the important body and cellular pathways.
It has been estimated that in the last few years, around 10 million deaths are being caused by this deadly disease every year in the world, and the number of cases is continuously increasing day by day.
Same is the situation in India, the number of different types of cancer patients is increasing every day and many people die of it in the subcontinent every year.
Many therapeutic modalities are being used to treat this deadly disorder throughout the world, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapies, and many other new strategies are being introduced by scientists that may help people fight cancer.
The most common type of cancer affecting a large number of women worldwide is breast cancer, while the highest number of deaths in the world are caused by lung cancer [1].
Despite of this, many patients are diagnosed at very late stages of the disease and the treatment becomes difficult. However, in some cases even if diagnosed earlier, the cancer cells develop resistance against the therapies, and cancer recurs.
So, we need to go for such cancer treatments that help the patients get relief from the disorder even if the disease is diagnosed at the advanced stages.
Many such treatments are being introduced nowadays by different companies that can help fight cancer, but they may have many side effects as well. So, the patient and physician should check the scientific reasons before going for such treatments and their clinical trials should also be analyzed.
Curcumin
It is an important compound found primarily in turmeric having anti-inflammatory properties.
Much research has been done on this compound and it has proved itself a very crucial medicine for the treatment of many deformities including cancer.
Turmeric belongs to the Ginger family of plants which is also called curry spice. The active substance in turmeric is curcumin which is a yellow pigment having antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential.
Turmeric contains curcumin and other curcuminoids, which may be extracted to create supplements with much more potency than the turmeric itself. Nonetheless, a variety of formulations have been created to improve curcumin's bioavailability because it does not digest well.
Benefits of Curcumin
Curcumin is a well-researched compound and many of benefits have been observed linked with several health conditions by using this important molecule. Some of the most common health benefits of curcumin include:
The levels of antioxidants prepared by the body are greatly increased by using this compound.
The number of inflammatory markers is reduced by curcumin in the body, so it helps treat inflammation in the body. It has been found through experimentation.
It not only relieves pain but also helps get rid of depression and anxiety.
It has been observed to be very beneficial for patients with osteoarthritis.
It has been observed through in vitro and in vivo research that curcumin can help patients with any type of cancer as it can kill malignant cells.
Some o the research studies have also shown that curcumin may have roles in lowering blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure [3].
Mechanism of Action of Curcumin
Curcumin plays very crucial roles in many health conditions as mentioned above. It can help relieve bad health conditions and cancers by different mechanisms including:
It can interact with different types of molecular targets in the body and can change their mechanism.
It can target different types of transcription factors in the cell nucleus and can increase or decrease their expression in the cell.
It can also interact with the cell cycle proteins and can help arrest the cell cycle in case of cancer in order to reduce cellular proliferation.
Curcumin has also been found to interact with multiple proteins and enzymes in the cell that are parts of any of the signal transduction pathways and can change the expression of the proteins, thus, altering the pathway [4].
Curcumin as Medicine
As mentioned earlier, curcumin can help treat different bad health conditions, but research studies have shown that it has poor bioavailability so it can not be used alone for medicinal purposes, instead, we need to mix it with:
Black pepper
Black pepper is one of the most popular spices in the world. Peppercorns, which are dried berries from the Piper nigrum plant, are used to make it.
Black pepper has significant amounts of piperine, a plant compound with high antioxidant properties that have been shown in test-tube studies.
It is used because of its ability to increase the bioavailability of the active substance.
Some lipid molecules or triglycerides
Triglycerides can either be stored as body fat or utilized by the body to burn energy. They may be taken out of dairy products, palm oil, and coconut oil.
MCT powder may be utilized similarly to oil because it is water soluble. MCT oil is quickly transported and absorbed by the body. It can be transformed into ketones or utilized as a quick source of energy.
Although curcumin is less stable and soluble, research has shown that it can improve the solubility and absorption of the substance.
This combination will help increase the bioavailability of this molecule so that it can be used as a medicine to treat patients with particular disorders [5].
Curcumin in Cancer
Many experimental studies have shown that curcumin plays a very crucial role in killing malignant cells and can be very helpful for patients with almost all types of cancers.
Different experiments have been performed in vitro, and in vivo in the laboratories as well as on humans during clinical trials.
Curcumin has proved itself to be very safe and effective against cancer in a large percentage of patients who were treated with it.
It plays role in killing cancer cells as deduced from the experiments performed in laboratories on human cell lines for different cancer types.
Experiments have also proved that this molecule can help treat cancer patients with minimum side effects.
So, the safety and efficacy of curcumin have been proved through scientific research and it can be used easily for medicinal purposes against cancer [6].
How Curcumin Works in Cancer
It can interact with an important transcription factor of the Notch pathway and reduces its expression in the cells, as a result, the proliferation of cells decreases and hence they can not move to neighboring tissues.
It has been observed that curcumin can also bind with a family of proteins called “Specificity proteins.” These proteins play crucial roles in cell survival and proliferation. When curcumin interacts with SP1, SP3, and SP4, it reduces their expression, indirectly decreasing the survival capacity of malignant cells. The experiments were performed on bladder cancer cells.
Curcumin can also interact with cytokines and COX2, which decrease the metastasis of cancer cells as seen in prostate cancer cells.
Human Clinical Trials for Curcumin
Curcumin has been proven safer and more effective in humans against almost all cancer types through different clinical trials.
Many studies have been performed on human patients along with normal individuals to check the effectiveness of this compound.
Role of Curcumin in Colorectal Cancer
A phase 2 clinical trial has been performed on about 126 human patients with colorectal cancer.
The study subjects were divided into two groups.
One group, taken as the control group was not treated with curcumin, while the other group, named the study group was given curcumin along with its active ingredients as a medicine.
It was observed that the patients who were given curcumin had reduced malignant cell growth, as well as the death of these cells, was observed.
Experiments have confirmed that this resulted because the expression of p53 protein was increased by curcumin, that in turn, increased the apoptosis of cancer cells, and hence, they were killed reducing the size of the tumor.
Curcumin was also given to some normal individuals and no side effects were observed in these patients [7].
So, curcumin can be used as a nutraceutical as well as a medicine against cancer.
Another study was also performed on animal models for colorectal cancer to check the benefits of curcumin against this cancer type.
In this case, mice were used as animal models divided into multiple groups.
The study group having colorectal cancer was treated with curcumin.
It was proved through experimentation that the animals treated with curcumin showed reduced tumor size after some time as compared to those not given curcumin doses.
Further studies showed that curcumin can target many different proteins in the cancer cells and reduce their proliferation as well as helps in killing these cells by inducing apoptosis [8].
Curcumin in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer
A randomized study trial was performed on patients with prostate cancer.
These patients were divided into two groups, one group was given curcumin for around six months while the second group was not given this compound.
97 patients were part of this study, however, after six months, the results were analyzed in 82 patients.
Patients from both groups were compared and it was concluded that the prostate cancer patients who were given curcumin had decreased tumor size as compared to the other group.
Curcumin can decrease tumor size by inducing apoptosis in the malignant cells by activating pro-apoptotic proteins [9].
Significance
Curcumin is a very beneficial compound used as a nutraceutical as well as medicine.
It is very safe and effective against all cancer types.
It can help cancer patients in reducing tumor size by decreasing malignant cell proliferation by multiple mechanisms and inducing apoptosis in these cells.
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