OBJECTIVE In recent years, the neoadjuvant chemotherapy for cervical cancer has evoked more and more attention and has been used widely. But the chemosensitivity of individuals to various antitumor drugs is different. This study was to investigate the chemosensitivity of cervical cancer cells to antitumor drugs using in vitro MTT assay chemosensitivity test. METHODS The sensitivity of fresh human cervical cancer cells from 32 patients to 9 cytotoxic drugs was tested using in vitro MTT assay. RESULTS The cytotoxic activities of the 9 drugs for cervical cancer were in sequence from high to low as follows: liposomal paclitaxel, taxol, carboplatin (CBP), ifosfamide (IFO), etoposide (VP-16), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin (DDP), bleomycin (BLM), and cyclophosphamide (CTX). Generally, cervical cancer cells were more sensitive to paclitaxel, taxol, and CBP than to other drugs (P<0.05) with inhibition rates of 56.56%, 55.66%, and 46.81%, respectively. Stage Ib1 cervical cancer cells were more sensitive to taxol, paclitaxel, and CBP than to other drugs with inhibition rates of 58.71%, 53.00%, and 49.25%, respectively; stage Ib2 cervical cancer cells were more sensitive to paclitaxel and taxol than to other drugs with inhibition rates of 65.26% and 50.06%. Both moderately and poorly differentiated squamous cell cancer cells were more sensitive to taxol, paclitaxel, and CBP than to other drugs with inhibition rates of 52.01%, 49.21%, and 40.02% for the former, and 60.02%, 61.16%, and 48.75% for the latter. CONCLUSIONS MTT assay, a sensitive and widely used chemosensitivity testing method, is helpful in sensitive drug screening and neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen selection for cervical cancer. Cervical cancer cells are more sensitive to paclitaxel, taxol, and CBP than to other tested drugs in this study.