BAX and cancer: Curcumin has been shown effective in inducing apoptosis in different cancer cells, mainly due to its potential to inhibit the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) pathway, whose activation hinders apoptosis by upregulating anti-apoptotic genes such as B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and downregulating pro-apoptotic genes like Bcl-2 associated protein X (Bax) [114,115].