A new study has found that curcumin, a chemical compound found in turmeric, is a safe and promising treatment for most cancers and other inflammation-driven diseases — perhaps by helping to regulate genes that boost the immune system, Medical Xpress reports. 
 

Curtin University adjunct research fellow Gautam Sethi noted many diseases, including cancer, are caused by genetic factors and that future therapies should aim to address them.
 

"To treat cancer you need multi-targeted agents, better than mono-targeted agents, which have been used for the past few years," said Sethi. "Multi-targeted agents are those that target more than one deregulated oncogenic signaling cascades — they are more effective in treating cancer as it has been found that several genes are mutated in a given cancer.
 

"We can modulate several of such oncogenic genes, which are deregulated in cancer using curcumin."
 

Sethi said curcumin has been shown to be particularly effective against multiple myeloma and pancreatic cancer, for which there are no drugs. But he added that curcumin was not found to be as effective in breast cancer patients being treated with the chemotherapeutic agent cyclophosphamide and, in fact, may can counteract the effect of drug.
 

Sethi said new research shows curcumin can be combined with other drugs to boost their effectiveness against cancer.
 

"It has been shown that most chronic diseases, including cancer, are caused by inflammation and can be treated by anti-inflammatory agents," he added.