Narjes Abshorshori

Curcumin, an orange-yellow component of turmeric or curry powder, is a highly pleiotropic molecule which shows promising effects on various pro-inflammatory diseases, inflammatory conditions, hepatic conditions, metabolic syndromes, degenerative eye conditions, etc. Over the past decades, numerous studies have demonstrated that curcumin has several anticancer effects in various types of cancers, including breast cancer.Materials and Methods: In the present review, we aimed to investigate the role of curcumin on the treatment of breast cancer. For this purpose, we searched scientific databases including Scopus, Pubmed, Clinical key, etc.Results: The growth inhibitory effect of curcumin has been studied on different models of breast cancer. Our findings showed that curcumin inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells by suppressing cell proliferation and metastasis and inducing cell death without no toxicity to normal cells. Importantly, curcumin treatment increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy and decreases the number of cancer stem cells. There are studies showing that the ability of curcumin to reduce chemoresistance tumor cells, to inhibit the reattachment of BCSCs, and to prevent the migratory ability of Breast cancer stem cells.Conclusion: Based on our findings, it is recommended that the use of curcumin can have beneficial effects on the survival rates of patients with breast cancer.

Curcumin; Breast Cancer; Herbs