Role of curcumin and its nanoformulations in the management of oral squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review

Indian spice curcumin, which has anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, has showed its potential as an innovative adjunct for the treatment of oral squamous cell cancer (OSCC), as well as an intriguing chemopreventive drug. The goal of this review was to consolidate the salient characteristics of curcumin and its cutting-edge nanoformulations, and to further outline the role of curcumin in the management of OSCC. The PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane databases were used to search for evidence-based research papers on curcumin. The current systematic review included 35 publications. There were 5 clinical studies and 30 cell line studies. The included studies employed a wide range of OSCC cell lines, with CAL-27 in 6 studies, KB in 4 studies, FaDu in 3 studies, and SCC-9 in 3 studies, being the most common. Each of the entailed study found that when cell lines were treated with curcumin, there was an overall decrease in the proliferation of cells and cell growth when measured by the MTT assay, the luciferase assay and immunofluorescence. In clinical studies, APG-157 could inhibit tumor cell death by lowering the concentrations of NF-κB-driven cytokines that induce inflammation. The WCRF International/UoB framework-recommended quality assessment of cell line studies regarded 6 studies as high-quality and 3 studies were deemed of moderate quality. The novel formulations of curcumin have been explored for its usefulness in the management of oral cancer, with promising results.