Breast cancer treatment using curcumin, the natural herbal biodielectric

Due to continual hormonal changes at various ages, breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women, worldwide, with about 1.4 million new cases and 500,000 deaths, each year. This necessitates alternative therapy as the current standard of cure doesn't work for all. Towards this, we propose the use of the natural herb, turmeric. It has the anti-septic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorous characteristics. One of the active principal components of turmeric is its yellow pigment, curcumin, and its anti-proliferation characteristics of breast cancer cells was studied in this research. Curcumin was uploaded using electrical pulses of 1500V/cm, 500V/cm and 200V/cm intensities into HBL-100 human breast cancer cells and at 1200V/cm and 600V/cm into MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Electrical pulses were used to enhance the uptake of curcumin, as these molecules are generally impermeant or poorly permeant. The viability and colony forming assay results indicate that there is more cell death using electrical pulses and curcumin, than curcumin alone. Considering the low cost and almost no side effects of turmeric, electrical pulse-mediated curcumin delivery could be a potential alternative treatment for breast cancer.