Curcumin for radiation dermatitis: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 30 breast cancer patients.

9027 Background: Radiation dermatitis occurs in approximately 95% of patients receiving radiation therapy for cancer and often leads to pain and treatment delays. There is no standard treatment with demonstrated effectiveness for the prevention of radiation dermatitis. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-control clinical trial to assess the efficacy of curcumin, a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory component of turmeric, to reduce radiation dermatitis in 30 breast cancer patients. Methods: Eligible patients included adult females with non-inflammatory breast cancer or carcinoma in situ prescribed radiation therapy without concurrent chemotherapy. After randomization, patients took four 500 mg capsules of curcumin or placebo three times daily throughout their course of radiation therapy (total daily dose = 6.0 g). Weekly assessments included Radiation Dermatitis Severity (RDS) Score, presence/absence of moist desquamation, erythema measure, and McGill Pain and Symptom Inventory (SI) questionnaires. Results: The 30 evaluable patients were white (90%; mean age = 58.1 years) with ER+PR+ breast cancer (76.7%) who did not have total mastectomy (90%) or chemotherapy prior to start of radiation therapy (56.7%). No significant differences were observed between arms for demographics, compliance, erythema, pain, symptoms, or radiation skin dose. Standard pooled variances t-test showed that curcumin reduced RDS at end of treatment compared to placebo (mean RDS = 2.6 vs 3.4; p=0.008). Fisher’s exact test showed that curcumin significantly reduced the presence of moist desquamation at the end of radiation therapy (28.6% vs. 87.5 %; p=0.002). Repeated measures analysis confirmed divergence of RDS between curcumin and placebo arms at Week 5. Conclusions: Oral curcumin, 6.0 g daily during radiation therapy, reduced radiation dermatitis severity and moist desquamation in breast cancer patients. A multisite CCOP trial (N=700) is underway to confirm the effectiveness of curcumin to reduce radiation dermatitis severity during various radiation therapy regimens for breast cancer. Support: IND 75,444, Dermatology Foundation, KL2 RR024136, NCI PHS 1R25CA10618.