To study the cytotoxic effects and antitumour mechanism of norcantharidin(NCTD) on human breast cancer cell, MCF-7 cells were exposed to culture medium with NCTD in different doses and hours. The cell growth inhibition curves of NCTD on MCF-7 cells were acquired by detecting the growth ratio of MCF-7 cells with MTT methods. The results indicated that NCTD had inhibition effects on growth of MCF-7 cells depending on the doses and times of treatment. When the concentrations of NCTD used was lower than 5 μg/ml, the cells grew as same as the control cells. With increasing doses and times of treatment, the inhibition effects of NCTD on the cells’ growth increased, for example, when exposed to 10 μg/ml NCTD