Cancer cells are cunning. During treatment, cancer cells can develop multiple defense mechanisms and cause the treatment to fail.
As a result, scientists and clinicians have also introduced the concept of combination therapy cocktails into cancer treatment. Compared with traditional monotherapy, combination therapy can target multiple oncogenic pathways, reduce the high toxicity levels involved in monotherapy, improve the size of the therapeutic response, and reduce the likelihood of therapeutic resistance. These benefits can improve patients' quality of life by better inhibiting cancer cells and reducing the risk of cancer recurrence.
In July 2021, a clinical research report titled "Is Curcumin the Answer to Future Chemotherapy Cocktail?" was published in the prestigious medical journal Molecules. , specifically studied the application of curcumin in combination therapy of various cancers.
Anticancer properties of curcumin in clinical studies
In clinical studies, curcumin has shown numerous anti-cancer properties in a variety of cancers, including breast, colorectal, lung, pancreatic and prostate cancers, such as limiting cancer cell proliferation, promoting tumor cell death and preventing metastasis.
Curcumin restricts the oncogenic signaling pathway and further restricts downstream tumor-promoting activity. In vitro studies have shown that curcumin therapy limits the proliferation and leads to cell cycle arrest in HT-29 colon cancer cells and PLC/PRF/5 liver cancer cells by inhibiting cyclin D1, while down-regulating NF-κB and cyclic oxygenase-2 (COX-2) signaling. While the tumor suppressor gene p53 is upregulated, curcumin inhibits the proliferation potential of cancer cells by down-regulating PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling. In addition, it impedes the survival of cancer cells, inhibits their ability to metastasize and inhibits MMP activity by down-regulating the EGFR pathway. In addition to restricting the expression of IAP family proteins, curcumin also promotes apoptosis of cancer cells by increasing the expression of Bax, while down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2 in various cancer cells.
Advantages of curcumin in combination with anticancer therapy
Curcumin in combination therapy can enhance anti-cancer effects while avoiding the problems encountered in traditional therapies. Curcumin combination therapy can counteract the defense mechanisms that cancer cells develop during cancer therapy and reduce cancer cell viability, thereby overcoming the risk of cancer recurrence and treatment failure.
In addition, in order to ensure the complete elimination of cancer cells, cancer treatment is known to kill some healthy normal cells in addition to proliferating cancer cells, disrupt the body's immune system and lead to high toxicity.
These shortcomings can be mitigated by co-administration of curcumin to reduce the toxicity and adverse effects experienced by patients and produce a significant therapeutic response.
Quercetin as an innovative therapeutic tool for cancer chemoprevention: Quercetin As an innovative therapeutic tool for Cancer Chemoprevention: Molecular mechanisms and implications in human health, "specifically examining quercetin in combination therapy of various cancers.
Anticancer properties of quercetin in clinical studies
Quercetin has been found in clinical studies to be an inhibitor of cancer-associated ROS signaling. Quercetin's regulation of REDOX changes can be used to selectively kill cancer cells. Quercetin can activate the internal and external pathways of cell apoptosis, and play a direct role in promoting apoptosis of cancer cells.
Advantages of quercetin in combination with anticancer therapy
In combination therapy against cancer, quercetin has multiple intracellular targets and can induce different responses in different cell types due to inhibition/activation of multiple intracellular signaling networks. That is, quercetin inhibits cancer cells (such as T47D and EAC) without causing the death of normal cells (293T and MEF1).
In addition, quercetin has been shown to inhibit the metastatic behavior of cancer cells by inhibiting snail mediated EMT.
The combined application of curcumin and quercetin has become the gold nutritional health product in cancer treatment
Traditional cancer therapies are challenged by multiple defense mechanisms that cancer cells have developed, hindering treatment success and further complicating treatment regimens. Thus, in addition to eliminating cancer cells entirely, the multiple targeting of these circumventing defense mechanisms could potentially restore cancer cells' sensitivity to cancer therapy.
Quercetin + curcumin shows great promise in combination therapy, where curcumin with quercetin can be an effective daily health supplement for cancer patients to counteract the defense mechanisms of cancer cell development during cancer treatment, in order to reduce the toxicity and adverse reactions encountered by patients and produce a significant therapeutic response, thus overcoming the risk of cancer recurrence and treatment failure.