Can turmeric treat pancreatic cancer? Researchers from the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute aimed to find out.
It is safe to say, there is no spice in the world known by scientists that is more powerful for health than turmeric.
Turmeric has received a lot of attention lately due to the power of social media and the overwhelming number of studies on the potent spice.
MEDLINE, the medical study database for example has over 10,000 studies on turmeric alone.
One of the most common problems in treating pancreatic cancer is resistance to drugs. The new research shows that curcumin – the active ingredients in turmeric – may help reduce resistance to chemotherapy.
The researchers found that when they treated pancreatic cancer cells with chemotherapy, the cells became more receptive to chemotherapy.
“By treating certain cells with small doses of curcumin, we were able to reverse the pathways that lead to chemoresistance,” says Ajay Goel, Ph.D., the lead author in the study.
“This is an important breakthrough that could lead to better prognosis and longer lives for patients with chemoresistant pancreatic cancer,” Dr. Goel added.
Dr. Goel and his team are hopeful that curcumin could have healing potential.
“Food-based botanicals have the potential to restore a healthier gene expression in patients but without the toxicity of certain drugs,” he concludes.
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REFERENCES:
1. “Could a Turmeric Extract Help to Treat Pancreatic Cancer?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 1 Aug. 2017.
2. “Curcumin Sensitizes Pancreatic Cancer Cells to Gemcitabine by Attenuating PRC2 Subunit EZH2, and the LncRNA PVT1 Expression.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 17 July 2017.
