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Curry ingredient fights skin cancer |
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Tests in laboratory dishes show that the compound that makes curry yellow - curcumin made melanoma skin cancer cells more likely to self-destruct in a process known as apoptosis reports Reuters.
Researchers also found that curcumin helped stop the spread of breast cancer tumor cells to the lungs of mice. Curcumin acted as an antioxidant to help prevent tumors from forming in the laboratory.
Bharat Aggarwal of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues treated three batches of melanoma cells with curcumin at different doses and for varying times.
The curcumin suppressed two proteins that tumor cells use to keep themselves immortal, the researchers write in next month's issue of the journal Cancer.
"Based on our studies, we conclude the curcumin is a potent suppressor of cell viability and inducer of apoptosis in melanoma cell lines," Aggarwal's team wrote.
"Future investigation to determine the effects of curcumin in animal models of melanoma and clinical trials are planned."
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