Radiation therapy plays an important role in almost every cancer treatment. However, radiation toxicity to normal tissues, mainly due to the generation of reactive free radicals, has limited the efficacy of radiotherapy in clinical practice. Curcumin has been reported to possess significant antitumor properties. Although curcumin can sensitize cancer cells to irradiation, healthy cells are much less sensitive to this effect, and thus, curcumin is thought to be a potent, yet safe anti-cancer agent. In this review, a summary of the role of curcumin as both a radiosensitizer and radioprotector has been presented, based on the most recent data from the experimental and clinical evaluation of curcumin in different cancer cell lines, animal models, and human patients.
Keywords: cancer; curcumin; radiation therapy; radiosensitizer.