Objective To study the inhibitory effect of curcumin on the growth of human cervical carcinoma CaSki xenografts in nude mice. Methods Human cervical cancer cell line CaSki cells were inoculated subcutaneously into nude mice. Thirty-five tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into 5 groups: curcumin high dose (200 mg/kg), moderate dose (100 mg/kg), low dose (50 mg/kg), solvent control group and cisplatin group (3 mg/kg), 7 mice in each group. Curcumin was orally administered once per day for consecutive 15 days. Intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin was given every three days, for a total of five times. The mice were sacrificed 24 h after the end of treatment and the body weight, tumor volume, tumor weight were measured and the inhibition rate was calculated. The histological changes of tumor tissue was examined. Results The tumor volumes of the treated group were significantly lower than that of the control group (P<0.01). The tumor inhibition rate of the curcumin high, medium and low dose groups were 44.3%, 40.1% and 33.3%, respectively. Apparent necrosis was observed in the tumors of the curcumin-treated groups. Conclusion Curcumin possesses apparent inhibitory effect on the growth of transplanted tumors of human cervical cancer CaSki cells in nude mice.