Topical Application of Turmeric Curcumin for Cancer

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Researchers showed that those at high risk for colon cancer could reverse the progression of their disease by taking curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric and curry powder—cutting down on precancerous lesions, and even pre-precancerous lesions. Are there other high-risk lesions we can try spicing up?

How about giving turmeric extracts to people who just had bladder cancer taken out, or who have early-stage squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer (caused by arsenic exposure), or early-stage cervical cancer, or precancerous lesions in the mouth or the stomach? In about a quarter of the patients, the lesions started to get better. One out of the two bladder cancer survivors; two out of seven precancerous mouth lesions; one out of six precancerous stomach lesions; one out of the four early-stage cervical cancer cases, and two out of six early-stage skin cancer—all without any noticeable side effects.

One of the reasons it may work better in some cancers than others, or some people better than others, is differences in bioavailability. Megadoses were given, and just a tiny amount ended up in their bloodstream. If you’re treating skin cancer though, why not just put the curcumin directly on the skin?

I’ve talked about what turmeric compounds can do to cancer cells in a petri dish. Here’s some before-and-after pics. These are cervical cancer cells in a petri dish, with more and more curcumin. Normal cells are unharmed, but cancer cell are laid to waste. Yeah, but to make it to the cervix, curcumin must be absorbed—unless a vaginal cream was invented.

A variety of delivery methods have now been devised. Besides intravaginal, there’s also oral, intra-abdominal, intramuscular, under-the-skin injections, straight into the veins, or the arteries, on the skin, up the bladder, in the nose, breathed in like an inhaler, up where the sun don’t shine, or straight into the spinal column, bone marrow, the tumor itself, or implanted somehow.

Taken orally, some of it does actually get into the tissue. You can measure the amount of curcumin absorbed into the wall of the intestine by examining biopsies and surgical specimens taken after a curcumin regimen. It makes sense to take turmeric orally to treat colon cancer, but if we have cancer erupting on our skin, why not just rub it on directly?

And that’s what these researchers did—turmeric and curcumin as topical agents in cancer therapy. They just took some turmeric from the store, made a tincture out of it, dried it, put it in Vaseline, and then had cancer patients rub it on their cancer three times a day. What kind of cancer can you get at with a finger? These were folks with cancers of the mouth, breast, skin, vulva, and elsewhere. Isn’t breast cancer under the skin? Not always. Advanced breast cancer can ulcerate right through the skin. These were all people with “recurrent ulcerating tumors [that] had failed to respond to surgery, [radiation,] and chemo…” And, these open cancers can stink and itch and ooze. There was nothing else modern medicine had to offer. So, let’s rub on some turmeric ointment, and see what happens. It produced “remarkable…relief.” A “[r]eduction in smell [was] noted in 90% of the cases,” “even in extensively ulcerated cases of breast cancer,” and a “reduction in itching in almost all cases” as well. For example, relieving the “severe itching” in two of the vulva cancer patients.

Most of the lesions dried up, and in many cases this relief lasted for months—all from just rubbing on some harmless spice turmeric, which they describe as an “indigenous drug,…highly effective in reducing smell, itching, and exudate.” “[T]he effect of this [so-called] drug is remarkable.” And, that drug is just some “edible spice used in…curries for centuries.”

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• Cheng AL1, Hsu CH, Lin JK, Hsu MM, Ho YF, Shen TS, Ko JY, Lin JT, Lin BR, Ming-Shiang W, Yu HS, Jee SH, Chen GS, Chen TM, Chen CA, Lai MK, Pu YS, Pan MH, Wang YJ, Tsai CC, Hsieh CY. Phase I clinical trial of curcumin, a chemopreventive agent, in patients with high-risk or pre-malignant lesions. Anticancer Res. 2001 Jul-Aug;21(4B):2895-900.
• Kuttan R, Sudheeran PC, Josph CD. Turmeric and curcumin as topical agents in cancer therapy. Tumori. 1987 Feb 28;73(1):29-31.

Images thanks to James Heilman, MD and Sanjay Acharya via Wikimedia

• cáncer
• cáncer de colon
• cáncer de cuello uterino
• cáncer de mama
• cáncer de piel
• cáncer de vejiga
• cáncer oral
• cúrcuma
• curcumina
• curry en polvo
• efectos secundarios
• especias
• medicina alternativa
• medicina complementaria
• quimioterapia
• salud de la mujer
• salud de la vejiga
• Vaselina