Curcumin as a therapeutic agent against cancer.

Background: Curcumin is an important chemopreventive agent against cancer. Recently, it has been reported that curcumin has also anti-angiogenic effects in tumor. Objective: This article reviews the effect of curcumin against tumor angiogenesis from view-points of cancer microcirculation and biomarkers. Results and conclusion. We demonstrated an anti-angiogenic effect of curcumin in tumors using nude mice. We studied the inhibitory effects of curcumin on tumor-induced neocapillaries and proangiogenic factors, based on our intravital fluorescent observation. Finally, we hypothesized a possible mechanism for curcumin effect in tumor.