Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 10, 2016; 7(3): 275-283
Published online Jun 10, 2016. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v7.i3.275
Published online Jun 10, 2016. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v7.i3.275
Relationship and interactions of curcumin with radiation therapy
Vivek Verma, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, United States
Author contributions: Verma V conceptualized the topic, performed literature search, and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares that conflicts of interest do not exist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Vivek Verma, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 987521 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, United States. vivek333@gmail.com
Telephone: +1-402-5523844 Fax: +1-402-5523926
Received: January 11, 2016
Peer-review started: January 15, 2016
First decision: February 2, 2016
Revised: February 11, 2016
Accepted: March 22, 2016
Article in press: March 23, 2016
Published online: June 10, 2016
Peer-review started: January 15, 2016
First decision: February 2, 2016
Revised: February 11, 2016
Accepted: March 22, 2016
Article in press: March 23, 2016
Published online: June 10, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: The Indian spice curcumin (turmeric) has been widely reported, largely in the preclinical realm, to offer many health - including antineoplastic - benefits. Though this article is not meant as a summative review of all studies of curcumin and radiotherapy, selected studies will be discussed that demonstrate curcumin to be a radiosensitizer of many types of tumor cells. Furthermore, data illustrating curcumin as a radioprotector of normal organs - including clinical studies - are also described. It is a sincere hope that these promising results can lead to curcumin use in cancer patients, either on or off a clinical protocol.