text_1: Nanoparticles loaded with component of common spice kill cancer cells
text_2: This University of Central Florida news release covers a study published in the journal Nanoscale, which found that curcumin-loaded nanoparticles kill neuroblastoma tumor cells in cell culture (in test tubes or petri dishes). Curcumin is a bright yellow compound found in the spice tumeric. The news release doesn’t disclose any harms and quantitative data to back up its claims and, instead, uses only broad, ambiguous language when describing the treatment’s benefits. For example, researchers found that these molecules may induce “substantial” cell death in neuroblastoma cells without being toxic to healthy cells. The study’s limitations should have been emphasized — namely, that it’s early pre-clinical research with experiments only conducted in undefined cell lines. In addition, research with curcumin-loaded nanoparticles isn’t exactly new. In 2012, a couple of studies looked at the molecule’s effects, including its toxicity, on neuroblastoma cells. Many news releases cover research that is in its pre-clinical phases. This is fair game, of course, but we then expect these reports to caution readers on the treatment’s applicability to clinical medicine. In other words, treatments that are successful in cell lines and animal models usually do not translate to effective clinical outcomes. Furthermore, it also takes years, maybe decades, before a treatment is even ready for clinical trials — a process often referred to as “from bench to bedside.” To avoid giving patients false hope, news releases need to disclose the early nature of the research high up in the release as well as be more explicit in detailing the treatment’s development and timeline.