This study was aimed to explore the effect of VX-680, an aurora inhibitor, on proliferation and apoptosis of K562, KCL22 cell lines and CD34⁺ cells from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in vitro. The proliferation of K562 and KCL22 cell was detected by CCK-8 method. Apoptosis of cells was detected by Annexin V-PI labeling and flow cytometry. The colony forming ability of bone marrow CD34⁺ cells derived from CML patients and donors was determined by the colony forming test. The results showed that the treatment of K562, KCL22 and CML CD34⁺ cells with VX-680 of 20-100 nmol/L for 3 days could obviously inhibit the cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner (P < 0.01). VX-680 treatment significantly induced apoptosis of K562 and KCL22 cells. Compared to bone marrow CD34⁺ cells derived from the healthy donors, the colony forming ability of CML CD34⁺ cells derived from bone marrow of CML patients was remarkably reduced (P < 0.01). It is concluded that VX-680, an aurora inhibitor, can inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of CML cells in vitro.