This morning, due to an unexpected meeting, I had no time to reread the second part of yesterday’s post, which I won’t be posting until tomorrow or the next day. I would like instead to post about this morning’s meeting.
Background: almost exactly a month ago, I was asked by an Italian urologist (and blog reader), Dr. Roberto Benelli, to talk briefly about my experience with curcumin and my blog at the upcoming official presentation of his new book on curcumin and prostate cancer. I hesitated back then, because of fear of speaking in public. But after meeting with Dr. Benelli and one of the book presentation sponsors earlier today, I accepted. My little speech won’t last long, just ten minutes or so (that was one big thing that convinced me!).
This book presentation is actually going to be a sort of mini-conference, with brief presentations given mainly by local urologists, but also by a well-known oncologist from Florence and two molecular scientists. These scientists, one from Genoa, the other from Munich, will be talking about their work on breast cancer and curcumin. Anyway, the principal aim of this meeting is to present curcumin and suggest how it could be used in a medical setting. Dr. Benelli will present his new book, of course, and also give a separate presentation on the history of curcumin, its use in traditional Ayurvedic medicine and its potential applications in oncology today. I will definitely invite my GP and my haematologist.
It’s an open meeting, by the way. Here are the details, therefore, mainly for those blog readers who live in Tuscany: the meeting will be held in the castle of Calenzano (yes, a real castle! I am beginning to feel like a debutante 
!), on March 8, 2008, at 10 a.m. To be more precise, it will be held in the Auditorium del Castello di Calenzano, Calenzano Alto (Firenze). The title of the meeting is “Modulazione del fattore NF-kB e prospettive terapeutiche.” My friend Sherlock will attend the meeting and plans to tape it in mp3, which I will try to post on my blog, at least some parts of it. If possible! Of course, the meeting will be in Italian, so hey, why put off studying this beautiful language? Sign up for some Italian classes today! 
Seriously, though, this should be very very interesting. If you are able to attend, please make sure you introduce yourself to me. I’d be happy to meet any blog readers! Ci vediamo l’8 marzo, spero!
Sweet Pea appreciated your puzzle comments!
super! great! congratulations!!!! pity I don’t speak Italian…
Robert
Could you translate and post it? 🙂 Pleeeeeeease?
I’ll try! 🙂
Margaret
Dear Margaret
I have been reading your blog for about 6 months now and am really pleased that you are going to have this opportunity to share your experience and knowledge.
I have kept meaning to contact you as I am so grateful for your research and you probably have many other readers you don’t know about who are benefitting from your work.
I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Myeloma last year and have been taking curcumin largely as a result of the research you have compiled on your blog. Initially my PP levels were rising slightly each time I had a test but my PP has been stable the last three or four times which is great.
I spoke to my oncologist in London on my last visit. He is open minded and accepted some research papers to read on Curcumin and EGCG and said it would be interesting to see if my levels went down, so I was really pleased by his reaction.
I am presently taking both Curucumin and EGCG but time will tell whether this is the right way to go as there seems to be conflicting evidence as to whether they have a synergetic effect or not. I have also just ordered some Parthenolide in the light of your recent blog. I am not as disciplined and orderly as you I’m afraid and tend to have a ‘try all sorts of things’ approach.
Anyway Margaret, my thanks to you are long overdue. I am truly grateful for your ability to take complex medical concepts and make them (almost) understandable and I am sure that your presentation will be well received.
Many thanks again for all the time and effort you put into helping others by creating this valuable resource.