Curcumin Potentiates Chemo- Head & Neck

“All current treatment regimens for head and neck cancer have adverse effects…That tumours become resistant to cisplatin is a major reason why head and neck cancer patients frequently see their cancer return or spread…”

Curcumin would be a wonder drug it it could be patented.

Twenty plus years of research and living with an incurable cancer has taught me that all cancer patients (of all cancers at all stages) and survivors must utilize the best of both conventional (FDA approved) and evidence-based non-conventional therapies to manage their cancer.

For example, a head and neck cancer patient can surgically remove his or her cancer as the initial therapy. Fine. And your surgeon will hopefully turn to you and proudly announce “we got it all!” And debulking your cancer is the best risk/return therapy for you at the beginning stages.

Your oncologist will probably not encourage you to then supplement with curcumin. Though curcumin has been thoroughly studied as a cancer therapy it has not be FDA approved. My experience is that supplementation such as curcumin is an inexpensive and evidenced-based therapy to reduce your risk of relapse.

I am a cancer survivor and cancer coach. I supplement with one capsule (400 mg.) of Life Extension Super Bio Curcumin daily. This brand and formula has been tested and approved by Consumerlab.com, an independent testing service and this formula has been show to be more than six times more bioavailable than regular curcumin. I have been in complete remission since April of 1999.

For more information about anti-cancer nutritional supplementation, scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply ASAP.

Anti-cancer effects of curcumin on head and neck cancers.

“Abstract– Head and neck cancer is the sixth large type of cancer in the world. The treatment regimens for head and neck cancer encompass surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, all current treatment regimens for head and neck cancer have adverse effects. Therefore, continuing investigations have been undertaken to seek less toxic therapies to reduce treatment morbidity for head and neck cancer…

Substantial evidence has demonstrated that curcumin inhibited proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis and induced apoptosis via modulating multiple signaling pathways in head and neck cancer…

Curcumin also suppressed the growth of xenograft derived from head and neck cancer in vivo in animal models. This review summarizes the evidence demonstrating potential use of curcumin as a single chemotherapeutic agent or in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents and radiation to minimize their toxicity in head and neck cancer. Although curcumin has been shown to be safe at doses of 8 g/d in both phase I and phase II clinical trials, its bioavailability is poor. Overcoming the poor bioavailability of curcumin in the near future would facilitate its clinical use.”

Curcumin potentiates cisplatin four-fold in head and neck cancer

“When researchers added a curcumin-based compound, called FLLL32, to head and neck cancer cell lines, they were able to cut the dose of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin by four while still killing tumor cells equally as well as the higher dose of cisplatin without FLLL32.

“This work opens the possibility of using lower, less toxic doses of cisplatin to achieve an equivalent or enhanced tumor kill. Typically, when cells become resistant to cisplatin, we have to give increasingly higher doses. But this drug is so toxic that patients who survive treatment often experience long-term side effects from the treatment,…”

That tumours become resistant to cisplatin is a major reason why head and neck cancer patients frequently see their cancer return or spread. It also plays a big role in why five-year survival for head and neck cancer has not improved in the past three decades….”

The Most BioAvailable Curcumin Formulas

“Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin (CU) products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism”

A search of the Pubmed database for the word curcumin yields 601 studies spaning health topics from multiple myeloma and colorectal cancer, to chemotherapies that synergizes with CU, to Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis and more. Based on years of reading studies and personal accounts, I think it is safe to say that CU supplementation is safe and relatively inexpensive.

I have read about myeloma patients taking daily doses of CU from 400 milligrams to 8 grams (1000 milligrams = 1 gram). By almost any measure, CU is a safe, inexpensive wonder drug.

The only challenge is that CU is famously difficult to absorb in the body. In other words, a person has to mix curcumin with some sort of fat (coconut oil, chocolate, etc.) or take a brand of curcumin capsule that is already formulated to be more “bioavailable” in order to derive the full benefit of CU.

The study linked and exerpted below reviews different formulations of CU. The study itself lists the three most bioavailable formulation/brand of CU and I’ve added an excerpt from a further review from Consumerlab.com that lists four additional bioavailable brands of CU.

I consult the independent evaluation service Consumerlab.com frequently. For one low annual payment, I can read about and evaluate all of the nutritional supplement that I take.

To Learn more about H&N radiation side effects- click now

David Emerson

Myeloma Survivor
Cancer Coach
Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Curcumin

“CU is a bright yellow chemical produced by some plants. It is the principal curcuminoid of turmeric (Curcuma longa), a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is sold as an herbal supplement, cosmetics ingredient, food flavoring, and food coloring.^[1]“

Bioavailable curcumin formulations: A review of pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers.

“Curcumin is a widely studied natural compound which has shown tremendous in vitro therapeutic potential. Despite that, the clinical efficacy of the native CU is weak due to its low bioavailability and high metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract. During the last decade, researchers have come up with different formulations with a focus on improving the bioavailability of curcumin. As a result, a significant number of bioavailable curcumin-based formulations were introduced with the varying range of enhanced bioavailability.

The purpose of this review is to collate the published clinical studies of CU products with improved bioavailability over conventional (unformulated) CU. Based on the literature search, 11 curcumin formulations with available human bioavailability and pharmacokinetics data were included in this review. Further, the data on clinical study design, analytical method, pharmacokinetic parameters and other relevant details of each formulation were extracted.

Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism. The review hopes to provide a quick reference guide for anyone looking information on these bioavailable curcumin formulations.

Based on the published reports,

NovaSol® (185 x),
CurcuWin® (136 x ) and
LongVida® (100 x )

exhibited over 100-fold higher bioavailability relative to reference unformulated CU. Suggested mechanisms accounting for improved bioavailability of the formulations and details on the bioanalysis methods are also discussed.”

According to Consumerlab.com:

“Novasol has the highest bioavailability (185 x compared to unforumulated CU), followed by Curcuwin (136 x), Longvida (100 x), Meriva (48 x), BCM-95 (27 x), Curcumin C3 Complex + Bioperene (20 x), and then Theracumin (16 x).”

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Diagnosed with Cancer? Your two greatest challenges are understanding cancer and understanding possible side effects from chemo and radiation. Knowledge is Power!

Curcumin Potentiates Chemo- Head & Neck

“All current treatment regimens for head and neck cancer have adverse effects…That tumours become resistant to cisplatin is a major reason why head and neck cancer patients frequently see their cancer return or spread…”

The Most BioAvailable Curcumin Formulas

Recommended Reading:

Curcumin

Bioavailable curcumin formulations: A review of pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers.

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