Biochemistry

   

Curcumin Combination Chemotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Authors: Shazia Tahira

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancer and there is innate resistance to standard chemotherapy regimens in pancreatic cancer. Gemcitabine was approved in 1996 for the chemotherapeutic treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer. FOLFIRINOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin) and gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel combination therapies have shown superiority to gemcitabine monotherapy but are more toxic than gemcitabine monotherapy. Therefore, gemcitabine monotherapy is still one of the standard treatments for pancreatic cancer for patients who can’t tolerate the toxicity of other chemotherapeutic regimens. The effectiveness of standard chemotherapeutic drugs is limited in pancreatic cancer due to drug resistance, and undesirable side effects. There is a likelihood that the combination of standard chemotherapy with natural compounds having anti-cancer potential like curcumin will increase the effectiveness of treatment as well as reduce the toxic side effects of standard chemotherapeutic agents. Curcumin is a polyphenolic compound isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma longa (turmeric) and is considered a promising anticancer agent. Here, a review is presented about the potential use of curcumin with standard chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer as there is a potential in different combination regimens of curcumin in pancreatic cancer to increase median survival in pancreatic cancer in comparatively less toxic, novel ways. Also, curcumin combination chemotherapy may lead to the improvement of cancer and chemotherapy-related symptoms. The poor bioavailability of curcumin has been the major obstacle for its clinical application. To overcome this problem, several curcumin preparations have been developed including cost-effective preparation methods to increase the bioavailability of curcumin. Different studies have shown that gemcitabine curcumin combination regimen can effectively increase survival with less toxicity in patients who are resistant to gemcitabine and can’t even tolerate the toxicity of other chemotherapeutic combination regimens. Although clinical trials are needed, Paclitaxel and curcumin cobound albumin nanoparticles also have the potential to become another alternative chemotherapeutic regimen for pancreatic cancer. For those patients who can tolerate gemcitabine paclitaxel regimen toxicity, there can also be a future possibility of using paclitaxel and curcumin cobound albumin nanoparticles with gemcitabine and this triple therapy may have enhanced therapeutic effects with comparatively less toxic effects. Curcumin has shown its effectiveness with the constituents of FOLFIRINOX in other types of cancers, therefore there is a need for curcumin FOLFIRINOX combined clinical trials in pancreatic cancer as curcumin has the potential to increase the effectiveness of FOLFIRINOX as well as reduce its toxic side effects.

Comments: 18 Pages.

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Submission history

[v1] 2020-04-17 23:59:05
[v2] 2020-04-18 19:04:10

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