The Usage of Curcumin as Chemopreventive Agent for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Experimental Study on Sprague-Dawley Rat.

Background: Curcumin, a natural herb that can be isolated from turmeric has been known for its therapeutic potential, including its chemopreventive potential, while heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an antioxidant enzyme that can act as the biomarker for the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The current study investigated the efficacy of curcumin as a chemopreventive agent for OSCC by evaluating the immunoexpression of HO-1 at epithelial dysplasia stage.

Methods: The current experimental study was conducted at the Veterinary Medicine Faculty, Bogor Agricultural Institute, Indonesia, using 40 Sprague-Dawley rats.