Curcumin, the chemically active part of the spice turmeric, inhibits cancer cells from starting, growing and spreading. These researchers studied the steps by which curcumin inhibited breast cancer cells in the test tube. They looked at genes, proteins and enzymes related to the features of malignant cancer. These included uncontrolled cell multiplication, invasion and spread throughout the body (metastasis). They found that curcumin inhibited H-ras-induced invasive phenotype in MCF10A human breast cells. Ras and ras-related proteins are often uncontrolled in cancers, leading to invasion, spread, and decreased apoptosis. Apoptosis is planned cell suicide, an organized process in which the cells corpses and fragments are safely disposed. Too little apoptosis leads to cells multiplying uncontrollably, such as in cancer. Curcumin downregulated the enzyme, matrix metalloproteinase 2. This enzyme is thought to be important in metastasis of cancer. Curcumin was poisonous to H-ras MCF10A cells. A higher amount of curcumin was more toxic. Curcumin-induced cell death was mainly due to apoptosis. Curcumin caused these breast cancer cells to make reactive oxygen species. These small molecules are highly reactive. They can result in significant damage to cell structures and a situation known as oxidative stress. The antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, inhibited the apoptosis causes by curcumin. This may mean that redox signaling is the way curcumin starts apoptosis, cell death, in these breast cancer cells. These scientists concluded that curcumin inhibits cancer invasion and starts a type of controlled cell death, apoptosis and that these findings prove that curcumin has potential to prevent cancer.
Inhibition of invasion and induction of apoptosis …[Arch Pharm Res. 2001]