Eating a spicy curry may help in the fight against bowel and
colon cancers, according to an international team of scientists.
Curcumin, which is present in the spice turmeric, has already
proven it can beat cancer cells in the laboratory, and now the
first human trials are to start at a hospital in England.
Professor Will Stewart from England's University of Leicester
first became aware of the medicinal properties of curry when he
found Indian and Pakistani communities in Leicester had 70 per
cent less chance of contracting bowel or colon cancer. "We've
done a lot of work with curcumin ... and we've shown that it has
well over 100 mechanisms of damaging cancer cells, particularly
colon cancer cells," he said. "One of the major mechanisms is
affecting the way that they grow blood vessels into themselves."
Professor Stewart is leading an international team to test the
power of curry on 40 patients with advanced bowel cancer at
Leicester General Hospital. They are being given two capsules of
curcumin a day - equ