Apoptosis. Apoptosis induction was studied by annexin V and PI biomarkers. Alteration of the balance between proliferation and apoptosis is associated with cancer and quantification of apoptosis can be a useful measure of cancer cell kinetics. In general, lycopene and beta-carotene induced apoptosis in all cell lines. After 48 h, two cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-235) presented an increase of apoptotic cells with dose-dependent characteristics, with an average increase of 1.90-and 1.30fold, respectively (Figure 3). In MDA-MB-231 cells, no significant difference was observed when compared to the untreated group after 48 h, results similar to those obtained in the analysis of the cell cycle (48 h). Lycopene promoted apoptosis in all cancer cell lines after 96 h, results similar to those obtained in the analysis of cell viability and cell cycle. Lycopene induced apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells, with an average increase of 4.10-fold after 96 h treatment and maximum increase of 4.9-fold after 96 h, at the highest lycopene concentration (10 μM).