Can turmeric prevent or treat cancer?
This page is about turmeric and cancer. There is information about
Turmeric is a spice that is often used as a food flavouring in Asian dishes. It grows in many tropical countries like India. It has also been used for many years in some herbal remedies.
The root of the turmeric plant contains curcumin. This is the part of the plant that scientists believe may help prevent some cancers, including bowel cancer. It may also help to treat some types of cancer. But we don't know this for sure.
A number of laboratory studies on cancer cells have shown that curcumin does have anticancer effects. It seems to be able to kill cancer cells and prevent more from growing. It has the best effects on breast cancer, bowel cancer, stomach cancer and skin cancer cells. A 2007 American study that combined curcumin with chemotherapy to treat bowel cancer cells in a laboratory showed that the combined treatment killed more cancer cells than the chemotherapy alone.
Doctors think that curcumin stays in the digestive system and is absorbed by the cells in the bowel. To find out more, a small study in the UK looked at how curcumin is absorbed from the human gut into liver cells. This study looked at how much of the curcumin is absorbed into both cancer cells and normal cells. This was a very small study of people with bowel cancer that had spread to the liver. They were given curcumin for 7 days before surgery. Doctors then measured the levels of curcumin in the liver tissue that was removed. The results showed that the level of curcumin absorbed into the liver was not high enough to have any anticancer effect. The researchers suggested that future clinical trials of curcumin should focus on preventing colorectal tumours. Several studies have shown that curcumin taken as capsules does get absorbed by the gut and is present in the blood. But the amount in the blood is small.
A 2007 American study in mice seemed to show that curcumin helped stop the spread of breast cancer cells to other parts of the body. But we need to do more clinical trials on humans before we will know if curcumin has any potential to prevent or treat cancer in people. An American phase 2 study reported in 2008. 25 patients had curcumin treatment and 21 had tumours that could be measured. In 2 patients their tumours shrank or remained stable. In some patients their levels of particular immune system chemicals that destroy cancer cells went up. But the researchers found that blood levels of curcumin were very low because it is not well absorbed from the gut. They suggest that creating an injectable, fat soluble form of curcumin may improve the results.
It is important to remember that turmeric used in cooking is very safe. But we don't know how safe curcumin is when used for medical reasons. So far, research studies seem to show that it causes few or no side effects. But we don't know much about the side effects of taking it in large amounts to treat or prevent cancer. There have been some reports of stomach pain if too much is swallowed and skin problems if it is taken for a long time. For these reasons we do not recommend that anyone uses curcumin other than in cooking without talking to their doctor first.
In March 2009, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), supported by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), issued a warning about the turmeric based food supplement Fortodol (also sold as Miradin). Fortodol has been found to contain the strong anti inflammatory drug nimesulide. Nimesulide can cause serious damage to the liver and is not licensed as a medicine in the UK. The Food Standards Agency states that taking products that contain unknown amounts of nimesulide could be very harmful. Fortodol and Miradin are sold in the UK and on the internet as food supplements. The FSA advises anyone taking these products to stop doing so immediately, and contact their doctor if they have any signs of liver disease, such as jaundice, dark urine, nausea, vomiting, unusual tiredness, stomach or abdominal pain, or loss of appetite.
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