Dedicated to Rosa M. Claramunt Vallespí on the occasion of her 65th anniversary Abstract A series of 22 quinazolines, pyrido [2,3-d]pyrimidines and their hydroselenite salts were synthesized with the aim of evaluating in vitro their cytotoxicity against PC-3 cell line and their antioxidant properties related to DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazylradical) activity, showing some of them better profile than the respective controls. Three of these derivatives (5d, 6d and 7f) were selected in order to gain preliminary insights to establish the mechanism of action. Caspase-3 activity and cell cycle regulation studies revealed that compound 6d provoked an increase in caspase-3 level accompanied by cell cycle perturbation in a time-dependent manner.