Can Adding Curcumin Help Women Undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment?

A large body of evidence suggests that curcumin improves chemotherapy outcomes and improves quality of life. This new study of women with breast cancer adds to that important research.

This study included 120 women with locally advanced/metastatic breast cancer. All of them were being treated with chemotherapy. Some of them added 500mg a day of curcumin, standardized for 95% curcuminoids.

After 12 weeks of treatment, the objective response rate was significantly better in the curcumin group (43.4%) than in the chemotherapy alone group (10.64%).

Furthermore, the women who added curcumin had higher physical performance, better quality of life, better prognosis and better progression-free survival.

If that’s not good enough, the curcumin also helped the women with the difficult effects of chemotherapy: they had better tolerance to chemo and fewer adverse effects.

This study adds to the evidence that curcumin can help people who are undergoing chemotherapy to reduce the side effects of chemo while enhancing the benefits and outcomes.

Phytother Res. 2025 Nov;39(11):5006-5024.

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For much more on preventing and treating breast cancer, see our book The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.

For much more on curcumin, see our book Healthy Herbs: Your Everyday Guide to Medicinal Herbs and Their Use.

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