Our study investigated the effects of the chemopreventive agent sulforaphane (SFN) on human colon cancer Caco-2 cells and potential underlying mechanisms of the effects. When treated with SFN at hypotoxic levels, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A (UGT1A) was induced in a dose-dependent manner. SFN at 25μM showed the highest UGT1A-induction activity, inducing UGT1A1, UGT1A8, and UGT1A10 mRNA expression, and increasing UGT-mediated N-hydroxy-PhIP glucuronidation. SFN- induced UGT1A expression may have resulted from Nrf2 nuclear translocation or activation. At higher concentrations, e.g. 75 μM, SFNcaused G1/G2 cell cycle arrest and induced apoptosis possibly through reducing anti-apoptotic bcl-2 expression and increasing apoptosis-inducing bax expression in Caco-2 cells. Taken together, these results demonstrated the chemopreventive effects of SFN on human colon cancer Caco-2 cells may havebeen partly attributed to Nrf2-mediated UGT1A induction and apoptosis induction, and our studies provided theoretic and experimental basis for clinical application of SFN to human colon cancer prevention.