Foreword

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The care of cancer patients benefits enormously from the continuous integration of new technological and pharmacologic innovations; we try to devote several issues annually to such. That being understood, there remains a vast array of unproven therapies with potential in either treating cancer or treating symptoms related to the cancer or its therapy. Formerly known as Complementary and Alternative Modalities (CAM), a newer term is “Integrative Oncology.” This topic is the subject of significant scrutiny by cancer patients. Well-designed research in the arena is ongoing, and increasing. The 4th international meeting of the Society for Integrative Oncology is scheduled for this November in San Francisco. Research will be presented and panels will discuss the roles of acupuncture music therapy, and massage–among other interventions–as well as preclinical and clinical studies of promising natural products.

Curcumin is such an agent. Used for millennia in some parts of the world as a herbal dietary staple, its use as an anticancer agent is not immediately intuitive. However, its role may be much greater as information such as contained herein is more broadly distributed. Drs Shishodia, Chaturvedi and Aggarwal have done the research. In logical, stepwise fashion they have moved forward to develop an enviable description of its biochemical and clinical properties. In this issue, they have succinctly summarized curcumin’s myriad functions. It is an important reference for us, and a sobering reminder of the potential of other integrative therapies if research is properly funded and performed.