Heat shock protein 72 (Hsp72) belongs to a group of proteins referred to as molecular chaperones that protect normal and tumour cells against many stressors such as hyperthermia, some commonly used chemotherapeutics and other apoptotic stimuli. Our study was designed to determine whether heat shock and drugs like cisplatin, etoposide and quercetin influence the expression of heat shock protein 72 in tumour cells: HeLa (cervical cancer), Hep-2 (larynx cancer), A549 (lung cancer) and normal human skin fibroblasts (HSF). Our results indicated that Hsp72 expression was drug and cell-type specific. Cisplatin and etoposide did not induce Hsp72 expression in any tumour cells but cisplatin alone induced Hsp72 expression in normal human fibroblasts. Quercetin inhibited heat shock protein expression in Hep-2 cells but induced in HSF. In thermally shocked tumour cells, the expression of Hsp72 was not altered by cisplatin and etoposide, but in normal HSF cells enhanced expression was observed. Quercetin inhibited Hsp72 expression in normal and tumour cells.