Affiliations 

  • 1 Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. nor.ismail1@monash.edu
  • 2 Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. iekhsan.othman@monash.edu
  • 3 Laboratory of Natural Products, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, UPM, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. faridah@food.upm.edu.my
  • 4 Laboratory of Natural Products, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, UPM, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. nordinlajis@gmail.com
  • 5 Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. rakesh.naidu@monash.edu
Int J Mol Sci, 2019 May 17;20(10).
PMID: 31108984 DOI: 10.3390/ijms20102454

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the top three cancer with higher incident and mortality rate worldwide. It is estimated that about over than 1.1 million of death and 2.2 million new cases by the year 2030. The current treatment modalities with the usage of chemo drugs such as FOLFOX and FOLFIRI, surgery and radiotherapy, which are usually accompanied with major side effects, are rarely cured along with poor survival rate and at higher recurrence outcome. This trigger the needs of exploring new natural compounds with anti-cancer properties which possess fewer side effects. Curcumin, a common spice used in ancient medicine was found to induce apoptosis by targeting various molecules and signaling pathways involved in CRC. Disruption of the homeostatic balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis could be one of the promoting factors in colorectal cancer progression. In this review, we describe the current knowledge of apoptosis regulation by curcumin in CRC with regard to molecular targets and associated signaling pathways.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.