Curcumin in Combination With 5FU for Colon Cancer

February 4, 2026 updated by: Baylor Research Institute

A Pilot, Feasibility Study of Curcumin in Combination With 5FU for Patients With 5FU-Resistant Metastatic Colon Cancer

The purpose of this study is to test the safety and find the response rate of combining the dietary supplement, curcumin, with the standard of care, FDA-approved chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5FU, Adracil) and see what effects (good and bad) that the combined treatments have on colon cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Confirm clinical safety and identify clinical response rate of combination treatment with curcumin and 5FU in chemorefractory CRC patients. To determine whether curcumin administration induces systemic alterations in inflammatory and epigenetic biomarkers in patients with chemoresistant metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). To correlate altered biomarker findings with clinical response according to RECIST V1.1 and survival criteria.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

15

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75246
        • Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Male or female 18 years or older, at the time of signing the informed consent.
  • Capable of giving written informed consent, which includes compliance with the requirements and restrictions listed in the consent form.
  • Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer that is not response to standard 5FU based therapies.
  • Performance Status (PS) score of 0 to 2 according to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scale.
  • Able to swallow and retain oral medication.
  • A female subject is eligible to participate if she is of:
  • Non-childbearing potential defined as pre-menopausal females with a documented tubal ligation or hysterectomy; or postmenopausal defined as 12 months of spontaneous amenorrhea (in questionable cases a blood sample with simultaneous follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) >40 mili-internation unit (MIU)/ml and estradiol <40 pg/ml (140pmol/L) is confirmatory
  • Child-bearing potential and agrees to use a contraception method of abstinence, intrauterine device (IUD), barrier methods or birth control pills prior to the start of dosing to sufficiently minimize the risk of pregnancy at that point and until three months after the last dose of the study medication.
  • Male subjects must agree to use a method of contraception. This criterion must be followed from the time of the first dose of study medication until three months after the last dose of study medication.
  • Adequate organ system function defined as follows:

System Laboratory Values Hematologic Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≥ 1.5 x 10^9/L Hemoglobin ≥ 9.5 g/dL Platelets ≥ 75 x 10^9/L For subjects not on warfarin-based anticoagulants: Prothrombin time/International normalized ratio (PT/INR) and partial thromboplastin time (PTT) ≤ 1.1x upper limit of normal (ULN) INR (subjects on warfarin-based anticoagulant): 2-3 x ULN Hepatic Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5x ULN (isolated bilirubin > 1.5x ULN is acceptable if bilirubin is fractionated and direct bilirubin < 35%) Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) 1 ≤ 1.5x ULN Albumin ≥ 2.5 g/dL Renal Creatinine ≤ ULN; or Calculated creatinine clearance2 ≥ 50 mL/min; or Metabolic Fasting Serum Glucose < 250 mg/dL Cardiac Left Ventricular Ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥ lower limit of normal (LLN) by echocardiogram (ECHO) Blood pressure Systolic < 160 mm Hg and Diastolic < 100 mm Hg.

  1. If liver metastases are present, AST and ALT ≤ 2.5x ULN is permitted
  2. As calculated by Cockcroft-Gault formula.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or other anti-cancer therapy including investigational drugs within 28 days or 5 half-lives, whichever is shorter prior to the first dose of any one of the investigational drugs described in this study.
  • Unresolved toxicity by National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, Version 4.0 (NCI-CTCAE V4) of > Grade 1 from previous anti-cancer therapy.
  • Presence of active GI disease or other condition that could affect gastrointestinal absorption (malabsorption syndrome) or predispose a subject to GI ulceration.
  • Evidence of mucosal or internal bleeding
  • Any major surgery within the last four weeks
  • Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus
  • Any malignancy related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), known history of HIV, history of known Hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen positivity (subjects with documented laboratory evidence of HBV clearance may be enrolled) or positive Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody.
  • Known active infection requiring parenteral or oral anti-infective treatment.
  • Subjects with brain metastases are excluded if their brain metastases are:
  • Symptomatic
  • Treated (surgery, radiation therapy) but not clinically and radiographically stable one month after therapy (as assessed by at least 2 distinct contrast enhanced MRI or CT scans over at least a one month period), or
  • Asymptomatic and untreated but > 1 cm in the longest dimension
  • History or evidence of current clinically significant uncontrolled arrhythmias.
  • Subjects with controlled atrial fibrillation for >1 month prior to study Day 1 are eligible.
  • History of acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina), myocardial infarction, coronary angioplasty, or stenting or bypass grafting within six months of screening.
  • Class II, III, or IV heart failure as defined by the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification system.
  • Any serious or unstable pre-existing medical, psychiatric, or other condition (including lab abnormalities) that could interfere with subject's safety or providing informed consent.
  • Known immediate or delayed hypersensitivity to any of the components of the study treatment(s).
  • Evidence of severe or uncontrolled systemic diseases (unstable or uncompensated respiratory, hepatic, renal, or cardiac disease, including unstable hypertension).
  • Pregnant or lactating females.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Open Label
All subjects will receive induction oral curcumin 500 mg twice per day for 2 weeks. Patients will continue on curcumin at same dose for an additional 6 weeks while being treated with 3 cycles of 5FU.
Drug: Curcumin
Curcumin is supplied as soft-gel capsule. It is a micronized rhizome extract containing phospholipids and 500mg of pure curcuminoids (95% curcumin, 5% desmethoxycurcumin) suspended in turmeric essential oil.
Other Names:
  • BCM-95
Drug: 5-flurorouracil
Fluorouracil is an anti-cancer (antineoplastic or cytotoxic) chemotherapy drug. Fluorouracil is classified as an antimetabolite.
Other Names:
  • 5FU
  • Adracil

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Determine the safety using curcumin in patients with metastatic colon cancer; where toxicities will be graded according to the NCI Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) Version 4.0.
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Events will be recorded from the time of informed consent signature through the 30 days following the last study treatment.
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Duration of response
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months
Overall Response
Time Frame: 12 months
Recorded from the start of the treatment until disease progression/recurrence. The patient's best response assignment will depend on the finding of target and non-target disease and will also take into consideration the appearance of new lesions.
12 months
Evidence of altered biomarker status (circulating DNA methylation status, miRNA profile) at 8 weeks post-treatment according to RECIST version 1.1 and survival criteria.
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 2, Week 8
Blood will be collected at baseline, after completing one cycle of curcumin treatment (2 weeks), and after completing three 2 week-cycles of 5FU (6 weeks) for inflammatory and epigenetic chemoresponsive biomarker profiling.
Baseline, Week 2, Week 8
Duration of progression free survival
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months
Duration of overall survival
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months
Duration of Quality of Life
Time Frame: Baseline, 12 months
All subjects will complete the quality of life survey at Baseline, 5FU treatment visits and follow-up visits.
Baseline, 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Baylor Research Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: John Preskitt, MD, Baylor University Medical Center/Texas Oncology, PA

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 20, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 10, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

January 10, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 16, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 25, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

March 31, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 4, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 014-143

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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