The synergistic anticancer effects of curcumin in combination with breast cancer chemotherapy drugs

Breast cancer has been steadily increasing in recent years, becoming a worldwide concern. Recent advancements in drug discovery and drug therapy have improved the survival rates of breast cancer patients. However, the long-term application of conventional chemotherapy drugs causes chemoresistance, and high dosage leads to adverse toxicity effects. At this point, curcumin, which exerts multiple beneficial effects, could be a potential novel agent in breast cancer treatment. Recent studies have found out that the combination of curcumin with chemotherapy drugs is effective in resensitising cancer cells towards chemotherapy drugs as well as reducing the chemotherapy dosage. Moreover, in vitro, and in vivo studies on different breast cancer cell lines as well as human clinical trials have shown the synergistic potential of curcumin in anticancer activities. Hence, this review summarises the synergistic anticancer effects of curcumin in combination with conventional chemotherapy drugs. This review also provides critical insights into the cellular and molecular effects of curcumin in combination with chemotherapy, particularly in relation to their modulation of key signalling pathways. Given curcumin’s poor availability, recent advances in nanoformulations have shown promise in enhancing its therapeutic potential. Therefore, this review also highlights the nano-formulated curcumin in combination with nanopackaged chemotherapy drugs, laying the groundwork for future research. Finally, this review analyses the research gap and discusses the future prospects of breast cancer treatment. In short, the findings presented in this review provide remarkable insights into the mechanisms underlying novel curcumin-based combination therapies, with the hope of achieving significant improvements in breast cancer treatment in the near future.