Cucermin

I take curcumin when I think about it, so not as regularly as I might.  Curcumin is much more potent than turmeric, since curcumin makes up a small part of the spice turmeric.

I have 1000mg tablets, and I try to take two a day.  I bought online from agelesscures.com .  I don't know if one brand is any better than another, but this seemed to be a good price for a pure product.  This is the first time I have bought it since 2005, when I took it during radiation because the University of Rochester was doing a study that showed it lessened skin damage.  It did seem to work for that, I had only minor damage from rads.

I use it also, there is excellant research on this supplement.  It has been in trials for a few years to see if they can make it part of cancer treatments.  I take it three times a day.

Flalady

I too have been taking it three times a day since my diagnosis.

Actually, Donna -- Recent lab studies suggest that curcumin INCREASES cancer cells' vulnerability to radiation (curcumin "sensitizes" the tumor to radiation, and "potentiates" the effectiveness of radiation therapy against cancer), while PROTECTING healthy cells from radiation damage.  Pretty miraculous-sounding, I know, but a lot of studies listed on PubMed say so:

Chemosensitization and radiosensitization of tumors by plant polyphenols. 
"Recent research has suggested that these plant polyphenols might be used to sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents and radiation therapy by inhibiting pathways that lead to treatment resistance. These agents have also been found to be protective from therapy-associated toxicities."

Radioprotection and radiosensitization by curcumin.
"Curcumin has been found to exert a dual mode of action after irradiation depending on its dose. It has been reported to protect various study systems against the deleterious effects induced by ionizing radiation and to enhance the effect of radiation. Therefore, curcumin can be very useful during radiotherapy of cancer. Administration of curcumin in patients will be able to kill the tumor cells effectively by enhancing the effect of radiation and, at the same time, protect normal cells against the harmful effects of radiation. The available information on curcumin suggests that the radioprotective effect might be mainly due to its ability to reduce oxidative stress and inhibit transcription of genes related to oxidative stress and inflammatory responses, whereas the radiosensitive activity might be due the upregulation of genes responsible for cell death."

is there any problem taking curcimin if you are ER/PR+????

Hi

I too am taking Curcumin, I have looked at the different studies and it seems such an amazing natural medicine.

I am ER+/PR+ and it does not effect me in any way.....

There were many others on the net to boast curcurmin being helpful or being an inhibiting factor in chemotherapy.  I kept seeing adriamycin as one and the cyclophosphamides in breast cancer chemotherapy.  I guess maybe it was because I was doing A/C that it concerned me.  70% is a lot when you figure they already give lower doses to keep the SE's down.  Just my own opinion on this as everyone has to make their own decisions and believe what they read in studies or not. As always, you can find a study in support or against everything and have to weed out the good studies from the bad.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12097302

Studies in tissue culture revealed that curcumin inhibited camptothecin-, mechlorethamine-, and doxorubicin-induced apoptosis of MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and BT-474 human breast cancer cells by up to 70%.

These findings support the hypothesis that dietary curcumin can inhibit chemotherapy-induced apoptosis through inhibition of ROS generation and blockade of JNK function, and suggest that additional studies are needed to determine whether breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy should avoid curcumin supplementation, and possibly even limit their exposure to curcumin-containing foods.

http://www.ufscc.ufl.edu/Patient/cancernews.aspx?section=cancernews&id=17526

Dietary Curcumin Appears to Block Chemotherapy-Induced Apoptosis in Laboratory Study of Breast Cancer Cells