It seems to me you are not interpreting the paragraph correctly.

"...like many antioxidants, can be a "double-edged sword" where in the test tube, anti-cancer and antioxidant effects may be seen in addition to pro-oxidant effects."

This means that in vitro (it doesn't say if they mean on a particular substance used to measure oxidant properties or on a cell in culture), curcumin has:
- anti-cancer properties (this makes me suspect they where using cells in culture).
- anti-oxidant properties
- pro-oxidant effects

It doesn't say they have seen pro-cancerous effects and there are many things with oxidant properties that are not per se cancerous.

What do they mean by two edge sword? Well, most of the times, the effect depends on the dose and the effects can even be opposite.

Why are they seing pro-oxidant effects?
This could mean that in the context of the cell, curcumin may be shifting a balance towards the reduction (opposed to oxidation) of some components in expense of the oxidation of other components of the cell.

Remember they're working in vitro and we should be very careful before we translated this into the whole organism.
Source(s):
I've been culturing neuroblastoma cells the whole week.

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