A friend (thank you!) sent me the link to a very interesting article which may explain why curcumin is effective against so many different types of cancer. You can read the article at: http://tinyurl.com/2rtvha. The study cited in the article was published in Cancer Research in March 2007. I looked up the abstract (http://tinyurl.com/2k99mm), which shows that curcumin inhibits the activity of an oncogene (or oncoprotein) known as MDM2. The researchers conclude that the Down-regulation of the MDM2 oncogene by curcumin is a novel mechanism of action that may be essential for its chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects. Why is this oncogene so important and what does it do? It binds to p53, which is a tumour suppressor protein, and inhibits its anti-tumour activity. Not good! Since the researchers used human prostate cancer cells, my job was to find out if there is MDM2 activity in MM, too. And there is! A study co-authored by Kenneth Anderson (http://tinyurl.com/345dm5) shows that the overexpression of MDM2 is involved in both growth and survival of MM cells. Therefore, the discovery that curcumin blocks the overexpression of MDM2 is extremely significant for MM and any other cancer where this process occurs. Well, how about that!