Role of nano-curcumin: A treatment for cancer

Abstract

Conventional therapies of cancer cause serious side effects, systemic toxicity, poor quality of life of patients, accompanied with tumor resistance and recurrence which discourage their long term use. Therefore, highly precise anticancer therapies with minimal side effects are needed to be identified. Curcumin’s widespread availability, safety, low cost and anticancer activity justify its development as a drug for cancer treatment. Preclinical and clinical studies related with oral administration of curcumin have revealed its very poor bioavailability. Therefore, curcumin must be formulated in such a way that it can overcome these issues. In this review some research reports, which illustrate the effectiveness of curcumin used alone as a nanoformulation or in combination to other conventional therapeutic modalities have been summarized. It has been observed that the curcumin nano-formulation can be developed as effective, targeted and safe drug for cancer treatment. Further, it can be said that Nano-medicine can act as effective modality for the treatment of cancers.