Many studies have confirmed turmeric’s anticancer, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory properties.  Herbs and spices generally have many potent health benefits.

A review by Ravindran et al, published in the AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), found that curcumin can kill a wide variety of tumor cell types through diverse mechanisms. Because of numerous mechanisms of cell death employed by curcumin, it is possible that cells may not develop resistance to curcumin-induced cell death.

A study by Villianou et al, published in the journal Anticancer Research, found that curcumin and its analogues have been demonstrated to possess various anticancer properties in a series of cancer cell lines, such as pancreatic, lung, ovarian, oral, colorectal, breast carcinoma and even in melanoma cells.

This article, published in Cancer Research UK, gives a great summary of the benefits of turmeric.  From the article:  “A few laboratory studies on cancer cells have shown that curcumin has anticancer effects. It seems to be able to kill cancer cells and prevent more from growing. It has the best effects on breast cancer, bowel cancer, stomach cancer and skin cancer cells.  At the moment there is no clear evidence in humans to show that turmeric or curcumin can prevent or treat cancer.”

A review by Aggarwal et al, published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, examines whether compounds in turmeric other than curcumin, also have health benefits.