A potentially potent treatment for the most lethal of cancers, pancreatic, may be right under the noses of people eating Indian curry.University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers are exploring the possibility that curcumin, which is found naturally in Indian curry powder, may inhibit the growth of pancreatic cancer and greatly
increase its susceptibility to chemotherapy treatment.But it's a little more complicated than heading out to an Indian restaurant.Mei Wan, a cellular pathologist at UAB, outlined the project this week for the American Cancer Society in Alabama, which is funding much of the work.Wan said the project started by looking at pancreatic cancer cells and noticing that a tumor suppressor called SMAD4 was missing. The main suspect was a protein called JAB1, which they found in excess.So researchers started searching for something to inhibit production
of JAB1, hoping that by eliminating this protein, they would enhance the body's natural ability to fight off cancer with SMAD4.The most effective JAB1 inhibitor was curcumin, which is found in Indian curry powder, which is easy to work with in trials with animals and humans. "It's quite safe and it's not toxic," Wan said.Pancreatic cancer kills 99 percent of patients who have it, most of them within a year of diagnosis. About 35,000 Americans die from it annually. "It is the deadliest among all malignancies, " Wan said.But while curcumin has shown promise in the lab, it's not soluble in water, which makes it difficult to inject, and it has a short half-life, meaning it is expelled from the body before it has a chance to really do its work.Now researchers have developed an experimental drug called PEG-curcumin, which "works really well" in mice, Wan said.Lab tests have shown that PEG-curcumin greatly enhances one of the few existing treatments for pancreatic cancer, the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine, and creates a cocktail that is even more promising than PEG-curcumin alone, Wan said. But it still must be tested in human trials.
increase its susceptibility to chemotherapy treatment.But it's a little more complicated than heading out to an Indian restaurant.Mei Wan, a cellular pathologist at UAB, outlined the project this week for the American Cancer Society in Alabama, which is funding much of the work.Wan said the project started by looking at pancreatic cancer cells and noticing that a tumor suppressor called SMAD4 was missing. The main suspect was a protein called JAB1, which they found in excess.So researchers started searching for something to inhibit production
of JAB1, hoping that by eliminating this protein, they would enhance the body's natural ability to fight off cancer with SMAD4.The most effective JAB1 inhibitor was curcumin, which is found in Indian curry powder, which is easy to work with in trials with animals and humans. "It's quite safe and it's not toxic," Wan said.Pancreatic cancer kills 99 percent of patients who have it, most of them within a year of diagnosis. About 35,000 Americans die from it annually. "It is the deadliest among all malignancies, " Wan said.But while curcumin has shown promise in the lab, it's not soluble in water, which makes it difficult to inject, and it has a short half-life, meaning it is expelled from the body before it has a chance to really do its work.Now researchers have developed an experimental drug called PEG-curcumin, which "works really well" in mice, Wan said.Lab tests have shown that PEG-curcumin greatly enhances one of the few existing treatments for pancreatic cancer, the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine, and creates a cocktail that is even more promising than PEG-curcumin alone, Wan said. But it still must be tested in human trials.
