Chapter 10 Therapeutic Effects of Curcumin Against Colorectal Cancer Christoffer Briggs Lambring, Sagar Shelake, Faraz Hasan, and Riyaz Basha Abstract Colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in terms of incidences and cancer-related deaths. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are the standard therapeutic options for several cancers including colorectal cancer. Phytochemicals or derivatives such as taxol and vincristine have shown efficacy and are widely used for the treatment of multiple cancers. Since the toxicity associated with the standard chemotherapeutic agents still is a major concern for treating colorectal cancer, alternative strategies using herbal products are extensively tested. Curcumin (cur) is a product of the plant, Curcuma longa, which exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti- infectious, and anticancer activities. A wide variety of evidences from numerous studies demonstrated that Cur prevents carcinogenesis, modulates signaling, inhibits angiogenesis and other critical aspects linked to cancer cell survival and prolifera- tion, and induces chemopreventive and anticancer activity against colorectal cancer. Cur also showed improved efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in combination studies. Bioavailability and distribution, and clearance in tissues, pose some limita- tions for the therapeutic application of this herbal component. To address such limitations, strategies such as combination with other compounds, synthesis of derivatives, and nanoparticles were tested with some success. Overall, Cur could play a vital role in the prevention and therapy of colorectal cancer. C. B. Lambring · F. Hasan Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UNT Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA S. Shelake Janssen BioTherapeutics Development, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Spring House, PA, USA R. Basha (*) Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UNT Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA Janssen BioTherapeutics Development, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Spring House, PA, USA Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, UNT Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA e-mail: Riyaz.Basha@unthsc.edu © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. P. Nagaraju (ed.), Phytochemicals Targeting Tumor Microenvironment in Gastrointestinal Cancers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48405-7_10 209