Inflammablog3

More news on my new favorite spice, tumeric! In a recent report researchers at the Univ. of Michigan found that the active ingredient in tumeric, curcumin, when applied to breast cancer cells in culture, was able to repress the growth of cancer stem cells, while not affecting the growth on non-stem cells. The same activity was seen with the active ingredient from black pepper, piperinem and was greatest when the two compounds were used together. Is this anti-stem cell activity a component in the anti-inflammatory mechanism used by curcumin, or perhaps an entirely separate effect?

This stem-cell specific growth inhibition may provide a better approach to limiting the growth of tumor cells in situ. Current treatments, such as standard chemotherapy or radiation, are thought to indiscriminately inhibit the growth of all cancer cells. But research has shown that many cancers are the result of cancerous stem cells driving the growth of tumors. And treatments that can specifically target these stem cells may provide better eradication than current treatments which are thought to often miss total irradication of the cancer stem cells.

Of note, the concentration of curcumin applied in culture is far greater (some 20 fold greater) than what could be obtained in the diet - supplementation would be required. Also, the study was an in vitro cell culture study, with all of the limitations inherent to cell culture models. But, the authors report that they hope to conduct Phase I safety trials as soon as next year.

1. Madhuri Kakarala, Dean E. Brenner, Hasan Korkaya, Connie Cheng, Karim Tazi, Christophe Ginestier, Suling Liu, Gabriela Dontu and Max S. Wicha. (2009) Targeting breast stem cells with the cancer preventive compounds curcumin and piperine. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Vol 66(3), p123-133