Combined Effect of Neutron Radiation and Curcumin on Breast Cancer Cells Cytotoxicity in 3D Culture Medium

Introduction: Chemotherapy, biotherapy, and radiotherapy play a limited but important role in treating breast cancer. For more efficient treatment, combination therapy could be an appropriate option. In this study, radiotherapy using neutron radiation emitted from a 241Am-Be neutron source, as well as biotherapy using curcumin (80 μM) was combined to investigate the efficiency of treatment towards MCF-7 breast cancer in a three dimensional (3D) culture medium. Methods: MTT, neutral red uptake assay, nitric oxide, glutathione assay, catalase, cytochrome c, comet assay, and caspase-3 were used to determine the effect of neutron radiation and also neutron and curcumin combination on the viability of cancer cells. Results: The results of cytotoxicity test showed that neutron irradiation with or without curcumin at 5, 10, 15, and 20 h reduced the survival of tumor cells. Moreover, the rate of apoptosis due to the neutron effect at different irradiation times enhanced with the increasing time. Conclusion: Due to the significant anticancer effect of curcumin in 3D culture, using this molecule before or after neutron therapy is recommended.