Spice to reduced risk of breast cancer?

The next time you’re preparing dinner, try using a variety of spices to flavour the meal—they just might save your life.A growing body of research indicates that many spices can help prevent cancer.

Curcumin, the yellow pigment in turmeric, is a new darling among anticancer researchers. The bright yellow Indian spice has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties believed to be particularly useful in fighting colon and breast cancer.

COLUMBIA — MU researchers have found that curcumin, an Indian spice derived from the turmeric root, could potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer in women undergoing hormone replacement therapy.

Approximately 40,00 women die every year from breast cancer, and 200,000 new cases are reported each year. There are six million women in the United States that use hormone replacement therapy to treat menopause, said Salman Hyder, professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and co-author of the study.

In the study, researchers found that curcumin delayed the first appearance, decreased incidence and reduced multiplicity of progestin-accelerated tumors in an animal model. Curcumin also prevented the appearance of gross morphological abnormalities in the mammary glands. In previous studies, MU researchers showed that progestin accelerated the development of certain tumors by increasing production of a molecule called VEGF that helps supply blood to the tumor. By blocking the production of VEGF, researchers could potentially reduce the proliferation of breast cancer cells. Curcumin inhibits progestin-induced VEGF secretion from breast cancer cells, Hyder said.