Curcumin, an active component of turmeric that has been found to inhibit inflammation, may help slow down prostate cancer metastases, according to a new study published in the journal Carcinogenesis.
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich have been studying curcumin’s role in inhibiting the formation of cancer metastases. In a previous study the researchers demonstrated that the substance reduces statistically significantly the formation of lung metastases in an animal model of advanced breast cancer.
The new study was designed to investigate the efficacy of curcumin in the prevention of prostate cancer metastases, and to determine the agent’s mechanism of action. The researchers first examined the molecular processes that are abnormally regulated in prostate carcinoma cells. Breast and prostate cancers are often associated with latent or chronic inflammatory reactions, and in both cases, the tumor cells were found to produce pro-inflammatory immunomodulators including the cytokines CXCL1 und CXCL2. The researchers found that curcumin specifically decreases the expression of these two proteins, and in a mouse model, this effect correlated with a decline in the incidence of metastases.
“Due to the action of curcumin, the tumor cells synthesize smaller amounts of cytokines that promote metastasis," they said. “As a consequence, the frequency of metastasis formation in the lungs is significantly reduced, in animals with breast cancer, as we showed previously, or carcinoma of the prostate, as demonstrated in our new study."
Early this year, researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center found curcumin helped slow down tumor growth in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Curcumin was found to suppress p300 and CPB, two nuclear receptor activators that help tumor cells bypass ADT, thus squashing the success of the therapy.
