Turmeric-The Scientific Evidence

Is there scientific evidence confirming how turmeric is able to do what researchers say it does? Is there documented peer support for the claims being made that turmeric not only inhibits the development of cancer but also abrogates it's growth and metastasizing once it is diagnosed?

This is from an interview with the world's leading authority on turmeric/curcumin research. He is Ph.D, Bhrat Aggarwal, Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Cancer Medicine (Biochemistry) and Chief, Cytokine Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, University of Texas/MD Anderson Cancer Clinic.

The "Christian Wilde Stem Cell and Turmeric and Research Report" explains how through a process known as apoptosis (cell death) turmeric is able to actually instruct the cancer cell to self-destruct. This process of programmed cell death (PCD) is the result physicians hope to attain in treating patients with chemotherapy and radiation. These treatments kill cancer cells but unfortunately they cannot distinguish the cancer cell from the healthy cell and both cells are destroyed in the process. According to Professor Aggarwal, turmeric has the ability to target and kill the cancer cell while leaving the healthy cell intact. Dr. Sharon McKenna and her research team published their findings in a most recent issue of the British Journal Cancer, further confirming the phenomena of cell death. Dr. McKenna found that curcumin began to kill cancer cells within 24 hours. The cells also began to digest themselves, after the curcumin triggered lethal [cell death] signals. Turmeric can reduce some of the toxicity created by chemotherapy as well as improving the result of chemotherapy and radiation when used in combination with certain drugs. There are some remarkable recent findings from Israel in treating pancreatic disease.
Scientists understand how turmeric is able to function as an anti-microbial, anti-infection, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, immune stimulating, anti-cancer and as a natural COX-2 inhibitor of inflammation for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. Yes, as amazing as it seems, turmeric/curcumin possesses the ability to perform as an agent in all of the above. No wonder all the excitement-but why has this realization taken this long? Does the reason lie in part in the fact that the pharmaceutical industry has been trying for decades to have the FDA change turmeric's classification to a drug instead of a spice so they might synthesize curcumin's properties into an expensive drug?
Turmeric for heart disease? Studies have shown turmeric's dual ability to help lower LDL cholesterol and to lower inflammation (a major killer in heart disease). One issue of the report describes how studies have shown turmeric actually reduces the size of the enlarged heart which is a critical result of heart failure.