Cetrimonium bromide (Lauroseptol) is is a mixture of different quaternary ammonium salts, which is a known component of the broad-spectrum antiseptic cetrimide.

In a FaDu xenograft tumor model established in SCID mice, intraperitoneal administration of 5 mg/kg Cetrimonium Bromide daily for five consecutive days moderately inhibited tumor growth as compared to the vehicle treatment arm. Additionally, 5 μM of Cetrimonium Bromide effectively prevented tumor formation in FaDu cells within SCID mice.

Cetrimonium Bromide exhibits a dose-dependent and radiation potentiating interaction that inhibits the clonogenic survival of FaDu cells. It induces nuclear pyknosis and bubbling in FaDu cells, consistent with the morphology of apoptotic nuclei, which is not observed in CTAB-treated GM05757 cells. Additionally, it reproducibly suppresses ATPase activity in FaDu cells, achieving approximately 90% inhibition at 50 μM. Cetrimonium Bromide reduces the cell viability in a variety of cell lines including FaDu, C666-1, UTSCC-8A, UTSCC-42A, MRC5, and GM05757 fibroblasts, with respective EC50 values of 2 μM, 3.8 μM, 3.5 μM, 4.2 μM, 11 μM, and 18 μM. It also diminishes the cell viability of A549 lung and MCF7 breast cancer cells with EC50 values of 17 μM and 12 μM, respectively.