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There is a need for new, safe and efficacious drug therapies for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancers. Raloxifene and the 2nd generation curcumin derivative 2, 6-bis (pyridin-4-ylmethylene)-cyclohexanone (RL91) have been shown to inhibit the growth of ER-negative breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We investigated whether RL91 could enhance the growth-suppressive effects mediated by raloxifene in MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, Hs578t and SkBr3 human breast cancer cell lines. The cytotoxicity was consistent across the cell lines but RL91 was more potent. EC50 values for RL91 were 1.2-2 µM while EC50 values for raloxifene were 9.6-11.2 µM. When the cells were treated with raloxifene (15 µM), RL91 (1 µM) or a combination of the two for 6-72 h, the combination treatment consistently elicited significantly greater cytotoxicity compared to all other treatments. In SkBr3 cells the …