Supplements,food:interaction with cancer treatments

[heblaj01]

The very good link found by fullofbeans (in a separate post today) icludes a well documented sub-link to interactions (good or bad) between some supplements (such as curcumin, black cohosh...) or foods ( grapefruit) and cancer treatment:
http://breastcancer.evidencewatch.com/
Click on the "SPECIAL ISSUES" heading & select "Drug/herbal/CAM interactions in oncotherapy"

Among the usefull pieces of data are the specific members of the P450 family of enzymes which are either inhibited or reinforced by supplements or foods & their implication in the metabolism of drugs or progression/regression of cancer cells.

[heblaj01]

A referenced article in the above listed web site iindicates that based on lab experiments, curcumin may work differently according to dosage.
At low dose it may work as an antioxidant while at high dose it may cause "elevated level of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation generated by curcumin. The lack of DNA damage at low doses suggested that low levels of curcumin does not induce DNA damage and may play an antioxidant role in carcinogenesis"
http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi...tract/91/2/476

Since the bioavailability in humans of ingested curcumin is quite low the supplement might likely work as an antioxidant. This may be one reason it is not recommended in conjunction with oxidative chemo (such as cyclophosphamide or adryamicin).
This may not be true in the gastrointestinal track where curcumin concentration can be high.
Other reasons for abstaining from or supporting the use of curcumin are detailed in the previously posted link:
http://breastcancer.evidencewatch.com/
Click on the "SPECIAL ISSUES" heading & select "Drug/herbal/CAM interactions in oncotherapy"

In separate experiments researchers speculated that some undiscovered metabolites of curcumin may explain its apparent beneficial activity in spite of the low levels of curcumin achievable in blood circulation.

[R.B.]

Heblaj01.

Obviously busy extensively reading, and through too. Impressed.

I have not had time to do more that a 5 minute skim but in trying t find the full trial on the DNA damage I did find this which was thought provoking.

The bit I found intriguing was the recovery of cells in 120 minutes. Does this apply to both normal and cancercous cells or do cells recover differently?

It seems like many food it has its pluses and minues which brings one back to the issue of as wider a possible variety wich applies both to what we eat and the things we eat have eaten.

RB

Abstract

Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.

The naturally occurring pigment curcumin, a major component of the spice turmeric, is reported to be a potent inhibitor of the initiation and promotion of many cancers. Due to its presence in the diet, one of its primary targets is the human gastric mucosa (GM) cells. Using the sensitive single cell electrophoresis method (comet assay), we found that curcumin at of 15, 25, and 50 microM caused DNA damage in GM cells and human peripheral blood lymphocytes. There was no difference between the extent of the damage in both types of cells. Damaged cells were able to recover within a period of 120 minutes. Our results indicate that curcumin may play a dual role in carcinogenesis.

PMID: 15281237 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]