Curcumin, a component of turmeric, has been investigated as a potential treatment for cancer cachexia
[29] due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and anticarcinogenic functions as a nutritional supplement
[17][18]. Curcumin is a nontoxic phytochemical with demonstrated potential to attenuate tumor growth in preclinical and clinical studies via suppression of NF-κB activity
[18][30]. In MAC16 tumor-bearing mice, curcumin prevented muscle wasting and reversed existing muscle loss
[17]. Treatment with curcumin c3 complex has been used in human clinical trials
[31], where it protected skeletal muscle from wasting when orally administered a low dose (100 mg/kg/day) for 20 days, and induced weight gain relative to the control tumor-bearing group when administered at a higher dose (250 mg/kg/day)
[17]. In MAC16 colon tumor-bearing mice, curcumin treatment attenuated the PIF-induced increase of the 20S proteasome, and decreased expression of NF-κB, atrogin-1 and MuRF1, indicating that protection from muscle wasting was attributed to suppression of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and subsequent protein degradation
[17]. It should be noted that MAC16 colon tumor-bearing mice exhibit a gradual loss of body mass and muscle mass over 21 days, enabling the efficacy of curcumin supplementation to protect skeletal muscle mass to be assessed over a longer period
[17]. Curcumin was also shown to attenuate loss of body mass and improve muscle mass and limb strength gain in cachectic LP07 tumor-bearing mice without altering tumor size
[16]. These effects were associated with increased cross-sectional area (CSA) of type I and type II muscle fibers, and a reduced proportion of muscle fibers with internal nuclei and inflammatory cell infiltration, in gastrocnemius and soleus muscles
[16]. Compared to studies reporting beneficial outcomes of curcumin, administration (20 µg/kg/day for six days via intraperitoneal injection) failed to improve the cachectic pathology in AH-130 tumor-bearing rats despite having anti-tumor effects
[18]. The disparity in these reports may arise from differences in dose, route of administration and treatment duration in different animal models, as well as the low systemic bioavailability of curcumin
[32].
While studies investigating curcumin efficacy in cancer cachexia did not measure oxidative stress directly, the role of curcumin for attenuating oxidative stress in skeletal muscle is well established. Curcumin reduced exercise-induced oxidative stress, evidenced by decreased levels of serum lactate and muscle MDA
[33]. Oral curcumin treatment (100 mg/kg/day) for 14 days reduced hypobaric hypoxia-induced oxidative stress and increased muscle fiber number in Sprague Dawley rats
[34]. The antioxidative effect of curcumin was linked with reduced activity of NF-κB and activation of Nrf2 signaling
[33], effects that reflect regulation of redox balancing, protein synthesis and protein degradation. Thus, regulating redox balance may be one mechanism by which curcumin attenuates cancer cachexia.
The therapeutic potential of curcumin has also been explored in clinical trials. Based on the limited data available, curcumin reduced expression of NF-κB in some patients with pancreatic cancer
[30]. Due to its poor oral absorption and weak bioavailability, curcumin supplementation had only limited benefit for these pancreatic cancer patients
[30]. However, the difficulty in accurately determining redox status in skeletal muscle
[35], may explain why evaluating the efficacy of antioxidant supplements like curcumin has proved challenging, especially when assessments in trials rely on measures of antioxidant levels in the blood. Improvements in the accuracy of these outcome measures are required to better evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin for cancer cachexia.