AIM: To examine the effectiveness of human placental inhibitors, by injecting vitamin E to rats with transplanted Norris-5123 hepatoma, on the expression of cathepsins B and L in tumor, liver, lung and blood sera after transplantation of Norris 5123 hepatoma.METHODS: Animals were divided into 10 groups receiving three different concentrations of vitamin E and inhibitors along or in combination and compared with negative control (healthy rats) and positive control (tumor rats). Effectiveness of treatment was evaluated with regard to survival time,tumor response and determination of the activities of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors using flurogenic substrates.RESULTS: Cathepsins B and L activities were elevated by 16-fold in comparison with negative control tissues, and their endogenous inhibitor activity decreased by 1.2-fold before treatment. In several cases, tumors completely disappeared following vitamin E plus human placental cyteine protease inhibitor (CPI) compared with controls.The number of complete tumor responses was higher when 20 m/kg vitamin E plus 400 μg of CPI was used, i.e.7/10 rats survived more than two mo. Cathepsins B and L were expressed significantly in tumor, liver, lung tissues and sera in parallel to the increasing of the endogenous inhibitor activity compared with the controls after treatment (P＜0.0001).CONCLUSION: The data indicate formation of metastasis significantly reduced in treated rats, which might provide a therapeutic basis for anti-cancer therapy.