Two series of a-aminophosphonate derivatives containing a quinoline moiety have been designed and synthesized by introducing bioactive quinoline scaffold to a-aminophosphonate. The in vitro cytotoxic activities of target compounds were first investigated against two human cancer cell lines including Eca109 and Huh7 by MTT assay. Results revealed that most of target compounds exhibited moderate to high antitumor activities against the tested cancer cell lines and some demonstrated more potent inhibitory activities compared with Sunitinib. Among them, compounds 4b2 and 4b4 containing methylsubstituted aniline group were found to be more active than Sunitinib against both of two cancer cell lines, with IC50 in the range of 2.26 mmol/L–7.46 mmol/L. Two series of a-aminophosphonate derivatives containing a quinoline moiety have been designed and synthesized by introducing bioactive quinoline scaffold to a-aminophosphonate. The in vitro cytotoxic activities of target compounds were first investigated against two human cancer cell lines including Eca109 and Huh7 by MTT assay Results revealed that most of the target compounds exhibited moderate to high antitumor activities against the tested cancer cell lines and some demonstrated more potent inhibitory activities compared with Sunitinib. Among them, compounds 4b2 and 4b4 containing methylsubstituted aniline group were found to be more active than Sunitinib against both of two cancer cell lines, with IC50 in the range of 2.26 mmol / L-7.46 mmol / L.