Researchers say they have found new evidence that a curry spice could help combat male cancer.
Doctors say their latest study of the spice turmeric brings it closer to medical use.
Researchers from Philadelphia, USA, have been studying a component of turmeric – curcumin – as a treatment for prostate cancer.
Now they say they have tested "realistic" doses in the laboratory.
The treatment could enhance the use of hormone-adjusting treatments that aim to block the male hormone, androgen, from stimulating the cancer, they say.
Writing in the journal Cancer Research, they say the spice suppresses two substances p300 and CPB, which interfere with the androgen treatment and allow some cancer cells to by-pass it.
Researcher Professor Karen Knudsen, of Thomas Jefferson University, also reports research on laboratory mice showing the spice seems to block cancer growth.
She said: "This study sets the stage for further development of curcumin as a novel agent to target androgen receptor signalling.
"It also has implications beyond prostate cancer since p300 and CBP are important in other malignancies, like breast cancer. In tumours where these play an important function, curcumin may prove to be a promising therapeutic agent."
Cancer Research January 18 2012; doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-0943
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