Curcumin, a natural product present in turmeric, decreases tumor growth but does not behave as an anticachectic compound in a rat model

Systemic administration of curcumin [1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenil) 1,6 -heptadiene-3,5-dione] (20 etag/kg body weight) for 6 consecutive days to r ats bearing the highly cachectic Yoshida AK-130 ascites hepatoma resulted i n an important inhibition of tumor growth (31% of total cell number). Inter estingly, curcumin was also able to reduce (24%) in vitro tumor cell conten t at concentrations as low as 0.5 muM without promoting any apoptotic event s. Although systemic administration of curcumin has previously been shown t o facilitate muscle regeneration, administration of the compound to tumor-b earing rats did not result in any changes in muscle wasting, when compared with the non-treated tumor-bearing animals. Indeed, both the weight and pro tein content of the gastrocnemius muscle significantly decreased as a resul t of tumor growth and curcumin was unable to reverse this tendency. It is c oncluded that curcumin, in spite of having clear antitumoral effects, has l ittle potential as an anticachectic drug in the tumor model used in the pre sent study. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.