Curcumin, the active ingredient found in turmeric (the main spice in curry) has long been studied by oncology researchers. Turmeric is a member of the ginger family and has been used for thousands of years to treat colds, inflammation, arthritis, and other illnesses, including cancer. This molecule would indeed be able to prevent cancer cells from metastasizing in colon cancer. In addition, a study from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany showed that turmeric also boosts the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs in the treatment of colon cancer.
Fat bubbles turn into shuttles
Researchers at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center in the United States therefore studied how they could administer curcumin to patients so that the administered dose directly reaches its target (namely, colon cancer cells). Curcumin is indeed difficult to absorb and it is usually necessary to consume large doses to be sure that a sufficient dose reaches the colon. Clinical trials with standard pills have shown that less than a quarter of the dose reaches its target.
The researchers therefore developed exosomes: tiny fat bubbles (they are the size of smoke particles) loaded with curcumin. These bubbles could act as a shuttle and transport curcumin to cancer cells in order to attack the cancer.
A clinical study on 35 patients
In an upcoming clinical study, 35 people who were recently diagnosed with Colon Cancer will receive oral curcumin supplements for 7 days. One group will receive it as exosomes (the fat bubbles), one group will receive curcumin alone, and one group will receive a placebo. The effects on the three groups will then be compared. When the tumors are surgically removed a week after treatment, doctors will compare the levels of curcumin in normal tissue and cancerous tissue in patients.
“This clinical trial is at an early stage and needs to establish that this new technology is a safe way for people to receive curcumin. It will be interesting to see if this new way of delivering the product directly to the tumor increases its potency, ”explains Dr Emma Smith.
