A dysprosium(iii) organic framework, {[Dy(H2O)(BTCTB)]·2H2O}n (1, H3BTCTB = 3,3′,3′′-[1,3,5-benzenetriyltris(carbonylimino)]tris-benzoic acid), was synthesized through the hydrothermal reaction of Dy(NO3)3 with the C3-symmetric organic ligand H3BTCTB at 160°C for 96 h. At the same time, the sensitivity of picric acid in water medium was tested with material 1 as the fluorescent sensor. The detection limit was 0.71 µM and KSV of this experiment was 8.55 × 104 M−1, which might be attributed to the presence of abundant amide groups in the framework of 1. In addition, the treatment effect of compound 1 against the NCI-H292 lung cancer cells was evaluated. The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) method was conducted to measure the viability of cancer cell after treated through the compound 1. The DCFH-DA was applied for the determination of ROS. The relative expression of the inflammatory genes was measured with RT-PCR. The western blotting was conducted to detect the effect of the compound against MDM-2 levels in NCI-H292 lung cancer cells. The possible binding interactions in terms of binding poses are probed by performing molecular docking simulations.