Ever been told by your Doctor that he doesn´t want you taking supplements incase they spoil his wonder drugs. Well, actually, he may be very wrong. As we repeatedly tell readers, there are serious research studies on the benefits of taking certain bioactive compounds, including antioxidants, whilst on chemotherapy.
Here are some examples for the drug fluorouracil or 5-FU, (a chemo that was first approved in 1956) andcurcumin. 5-FU is a drug commonly used with oxaliplatin in treating colorectal cancer (The combination is dubbed FOLFOX); and in treatments such as FEC-T for breast cancer.
It would appear that 5-FU is actually cytoxic to healthy cells, and curcumin reduces toxicity by 7-10 fold, without weakening the attack on cancer cells; plus it actually enhances its action against cancer cells.
Curcumin acts to sensitize cancer cells to the effects of drug treatment and has additional actions against cancer. For example, on its own it performs against the cancer tumour slightly worse that the combination of the two colorectal drugs. But when measuring cancer stem cells, which bring about the regrowth of the tumour, cur cumin reduces their numbers much more that the combination of drugs does.
1. Curcumin enhances the effects of 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin in mediating growth inhibition of colon cancer cells by modulating EGFR and IGF-1R.
Hardly a small claim this, the conclusion was that curcumin should be used with the two colorectal drugs. (Ref: Int J Cancer. 2008 Jan 15;122(2):267-73.)
2. Curcumin acts on cancer stem cells missed by 5-FU and oxaliplatin.
FOLFOX treatment on its own has limited success and actually seems to enrich (increase) the numbers of colorectal stem-cells after use. However, the addition of curcumin, reduces them. In further studies on its own, while curcumin killed off 5% less cancer cells, it significantly reduced the overall number of cancer stem cells that could regrow. (Ref: 2009. http://www.transonc.com/article/S1936-5233(09)80040-5/abstract)
3. Curcumin chemosensitizes 5-fluorouracil resistant MMR-deficient human colon cancer cells in high density cultures
Some colorectal cancer cells are just simply resistant to 5-FU. But not after curcumin is introduced. (Ref: PLoS One. 2014 Jan 3;9(1):e85397. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085397. eCollection 2014)
4. Curcumin reduces cytotoxicity of 5-Fluorouracil treatment in human breast cancer cells
Concerned about breast cancer drug toxicity? After curcumin was introduced there was a 7-10 fold reduction in healthy cell damage. (Ref: J Med Food. 2015 Apr;18(4):497-502. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2013.0086. Epub 2014 Jan 29.)
