This study examined the cytotoxicity of Scytosiphon lomentaria, using various cancer cell lines. The ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction of this alga showed the cytotoxicity to leukemia cells, including HL-60. When HL-60 cells were treated with its EtOAc fraction, several apoptotic characteristics, such as DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and an increase of the population of sub-G1 hypodiploid cells, were observed. Moreover, the EtOAc fraction decreased c-Myc expression in a dose-dependent manner. In order to understand the mechanism of apoptosis induction by S. lomentaria, we examined the changes of Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression levels. The EtOAc fraction reduced Bcl-2, an antiapoptotic protein, but increased Bax, a proapoptotic protein, in a dose-dependent manner. When we examined the activation of caspase-3, an effector of apoptosis, the expression of the active form (19 kDa) of caspase-3 increased, and the increase of their activities was demonstrated by the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, a substrate of caspase-3, to 85 kDa. The results suggest that the inhibitory effect of S. lomentaria on the growth of HL-60 appears to arise from the induction of apoptosis by way of the down-regulation of Bcl-2 and the activation of caspase.