A common ingredient in curry could help target and destroy chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells, scientists said today. This could improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy and also help prevent the disease from returning. Researchers at the University of Leicester have been using curcumin - an extract of root turmeric, commonly used to spice up curries - to target chemo-resistant cells.

Colorectal cancer accounts for more than 600,000 deaths a year and is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the western world. Lead researcher Dr Karen Brown, said: 'Following treatment for cancer, small populations of cancer cells often remain which are responsible for disease returning.'These cells appear to have different properties to the bulk of cells within a tumour, making them resistant to chemotherapy.

'Previous laboratory research has shown that curcumin, from turmeric, has not only improved the effectiveness of chemotherapy but has also reduced the number of chemo-resistant cells, which has implications in preventing the disease returning. 'We hope that our work will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which curcumin targets resistant cells in tumours.

Turmeric, part of the ginger family, is best known as an orange/yellow powder used as a spice for curries, but has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries.

Vocabulary：

chemotherapy n. 化學(xué)療法
turmeric n. 姜黃；姜黃根粉末

相關(guān)中文：

有科學(xué)家研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，普通的食材“咖喱”能使得癌癥患者體內(nèi)的癌細(xì)胞減少。在癌癥患者進(jìn)行化療期間，咖喱的效果還能使得化療效果更顯著。據(jù)說(shuō)，咖喱內(nèi)富含“姜黃素”，這種物質(zhì)具有很好的抗癌、消炎作用。

據(jù)統(tǒng)計(jì)，世界上有60萬(wàn)人每年死于直腸癌，這種疾病已經(jīng)成為西方最具“殺傷力”的疾病。一般患者即使已經(jīng)接受了化療，然而還有部分癌細(xì)胞因抗拒化療仍將滯留于體內(nèi)，這部分癌細(xì)胞還有將病發(fā)的可能。

研究稱，“姜黃素”不僅能大大提高化療的效果，同時(shí)也能減少抗拒化療的癌細(xì)胞的數(shù)量。

姜黃：常用于調(diào)配咖喱，主要成分為姜黃素，成色一般為橘黃色和黃色。從古至今，人們把“姜黃”作為一種醫(yī)學(xué)食材來(lái)使用。