A chemical in the ingredient that makes your favorite Indian curry dish a vibrant yellow color may also be used as a safer, alternative way to treat head and neck cancer.

UCLA researchers have shown that curcumin, a major component in turmeric root, is a major antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substance that can suppress this particular cancer.

By taking saliva samples from patients with head and neck cancer, researchers were able to demonstrate that curcumin inhibits a protein involved in the activation of the cancer cellular process, said Eri Srivatsan, adjunct professor of surgery and co-author of the study. The research was published in the current issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Cancer is often treated with several drugs in order to target more than one cell cycle pathway that cancer cells take, said Dr. Marilene Wang, professor of head and neck surgery and co-author of the study. Head and neck cancer can affect the mouth, tongue, throat and vocal cords.

Current treatments are unsatisfactory because they involve surgeries and toxic chemotherapy radiation, Wang said. As a result, researchers have sought to find alternative and less toxic ways to treat the cancer, she added.

Srivatsan and Wang have researched head and neck cancer together for 17 years, and they hope that they can treat patients with lower doses of cisplatin, the standard chemotherapy drug, by adding curcumin.

A previous publication by Wang and Srivatsan also showed the curcumin could enhance the effect of cisplatin.

The researchers also showed that curcumin decreases the level of cancer-promoting inflammatory proteins in the saliva, Srivatsan said.

In the 18-month-long pilot study, patients chewed on curcumin gelatin capsules so that the curcumin could coat the surface of the mouth and tongue.

In an earlier experiment with curcumin, the UCLA researchers found that tumors decreased in size in animal models when curcumin paste was applied directly onto the tumor, Wang said. Oral and throat cancers are ideal for this kind of treatment because curcumin can coat the cancerous tumor directly.

To measure the cancer itself, studying the saliva is less invasive than performing surgery and removing tumor samples, Wang said.

Multiple molecular markers in the saliva change when a person has cancer, so whatever happens with the tumor will affect the composition of the saliva, Wang added.

The researchers are in the process of identifying patients who are already planning to have surgery to enroll them in their human study.

These cancer patients will be given at least one to two grams of curcumin per day for three weeks until they undergo surgery to remove the tumors.

After the surgery, researchers will study the tumor samples for changes in the molecular markers and examine which pathways have been affected by the curcumin treatment, Wang said.

“We can’t really make any recommendations (about consuming more curcumin). This is a pilot study, but it certainly makes you wonder,” Wang said of taking curcumin regularly to boost one’s health.

Other researchers have found that patients given up to four grams of curcumin a day experienced no adverse effects, Wang said.

Curcumin is also being used in Alzheimer’s research because it may slow down the degeneration in the brain, Wang said. In India, turmeric is used extensively in soaps, facial applications and anti-aging remedies.

People also take curcumin to prevent cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, she added.

Sally Frautschy, a professor of neurology who studies aging-related diseases, has tested curcumin in several models for Alzheimer’s. Curcumin reduces oxidative damage, which can accelerate Alzheimer’s, she said.

“A lot of cancers are age-related, (and curcumin) seems to be very effective for colon cancer, and if we can really work on getting better absorption, then we’re going to get much better treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s,” she added.

Frautschy said she recommends cooking with turmeric, especially mixing it with oil so that curcumin can be absorbed and go directly to the brain.