• 11/7/2005
  • Thriuvananthapuram, India
  • John Mary
  • The Peninsula (www.thepeninsulaqatar.com)

The Regional Cancer Centre at Thriuvananthapuram, whose studies suggest that a 5-minute oral cancer screening can check about 40,000 deaths worldwide, is launching clinical trials to test the efficacy of turmeric in preventing oral cancers.

Oncologist K Ramadas at the RCC said that although turmeric was widely believed to be a broad spectrum anti-cancer agent, there have been very few studies to establish its therapeutic efficacy in treating pre-cancer lesions.

The RCC and the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) will be funded by the Federal Department of Biotechnology in initiating multi-centric clinical trails at RCC, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, and Tata Hospital, Mumbai, over the next three years.

Trials are intended to check out the preventive action of curcumin on white patches in the mouth (leuokplakia) that can turn cancerous.

RGCB director Dr Radhakrishna Pillai, one of the two principal investigators of the project, said laboratory studies and studies on animals had been encouraging.

Dr Ramadas said the major handicap experienced so far in anti-cancer treatment had been the low absorption rate of curcumin. Only a minuscule fraction of curcumin passed through the liver. The bulk of it would get metabolised in the liver, leaving little to reach the tumour site.

Hence, the focus of the clinical trails would be to try using curcumin lozenges and patches to treat lesions.

Turmeric holds a high place in ayurvedic medicine as a “cleanser of the body” and today science is finding a growing list of diseased conditions which turmeric’s active ingredient heals.