On November 26 I received a Google Alert about an “Anticancer Research” November 2011 abstract discussing not just one but TWO curcumin analogs, GO-YO30 and GO-YO78, which have shown much stronger growth-suppressive activity against myeloma cells than plain old curcumin: http://goo.gl/uHJ90. They also very strongly suppressed many bothersome (in cancer) pathways, including our old nemesis, NF-kappaB, which is very much involved in the well-being of myeloma cells…again, much more effectively than regular curcumin…up to 15 times more!

I tried to get my hands on the full study, but without any luck. And that is mainly why I didn’t finish my post last week, leaving it in draft form. Oh okay, it’s time now to fess up: I totally FORGOT about it. 🙂 Until yesterday, which is when several attentive blog readers (thanks!!!) sent me messages about these two analogs. Ah yes. Right. Ehm. I went back to my crowded desktop and fished out my draft…

Today, thanks to the kindness of a friend, I was able to have a look at the full text of a May 2011 study on GO-YO30 (http://goo.gl/i1LBV), written by the same Japanese researchers (the same who wrote the MM study, that is) who showed that this analog was ten to twenty times (!!!) stronger than regular curcumin against thyroid and pancreatic cancers and cholangiocarcinoma cells. Now, although that particular study didn’t test any myeloma cells, it proved that GO-YO30 had a big impact on ALL the evil thingies that are active in myeloma, too.

Yes, of course, these tests were carried out on CELLS, not on humans. But I would like to point out that when I first began taking curcumin, all the available information on curcumin and myeloma had to do with studies carried out only on CELLS. There were no human clinical trial results. In fact, the number of studies on curcumin and cancer was a mere fraction of what we have today. The only thing I knew for sure back then was that curcumin was non toxic. But hey, I’ve been stable for almost six years now. So, you see, I tend to pay attention to some of these “cell-only” studies…

Now, in the above-mentioned May 2011 study (the full text) the researchers suggest that it might be a good idea to combine the curcumin analogs with chemo drugs that activate NF-kappaB (= a bad thing!). Since these curcumin analogs suppress NF-kappaB, perhaps this annoying pathway would NOT get activated, which means that the drugs would work better. Interesting. Obviously, more tests are needed…but wouldn’t it be wonderful if these combinations worked synergistically? Taking that a step further, thanks to the use of curcumin analogs, perhaps some day doctors would be able to administer lower doses of toxic chemo drugs, thus reducing negative side effects…How does that sound? 🙂

Another titbit: GO-YO30, like curcumin, inhibits the Wnt signaling pathway. That is excellent news. As you may remember, this particular pathway is involved in myeloma growth and proliferation…

By the way, this is not the first time I’ve read about GO-YO30. On the contrary, in 2009, after learning of its effects on colorectal carcinoma (see: http://goo.gl/cwJXh), I created the above-mentioned Google Alert…

Well, we’ll just have to sit back and see what happens. But if we keep getting this great news about GO-YO30 and (now) GO-YO78, you can bet your favorite dance shoes that I’ll be first in line when they both come out on the market… 🙂