Developing curcumin into a viable therapeutic for lymphoma.
BACKGROUND
Emerging evidence suggests that natural plant ingredients have played an important role in the healthcare of many countries. Several of these natural plant products possess therapeutic potential for various diseases including cancer. Curcumin is the pigment of turmeric, a well-known chemopreventive agent that has been shown to suppress the proliferation of a wide variety of tumor cells, including lymphoma. Curcumin has been shown to have cancer chemopreventive potential against a variety of tumors via targeting key survival pathways that are aberrantly activated in cancer cells.


METHODS
This review discusses therapeutic potential of curcumin in malignancies of lymphoma as well as therapeutic implications of the recent advances in the field.


CONCLUSIONS
Dietary-compound curcumin hardwires to multiple cellular processes. Suppression of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, and inhibition of metastasis are considered to be the major mechanisms underlying its anticancer properties.
Uddin
Shahab
S
Human Cancer Genomic Research, King Fahad National Center for Children's Cancer & Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, MBC #98-16, PO Box 3354, Riyadh 11211, Saudi Arabia. Shahab@kfshrc.edu.sa
Khan
Asma S
AS
Al-Kuraya
Khawla S
KS
D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003474:Curcumin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003474:Curcumin