Abstract. Tumor treatment requires a long-term regimen of chemotherapy, and both surgical tumor resection and radiation therapy are also used. The present study aimed to develop a novel method for 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-loaded microspheres which enhance the therapeutic effects of chemotherapy, the quality of life of patients and reduce chemotherapy systemic side-effects. The preparation of a 5-FU microsphere delivery system by a solid-in-oil-in-hydrophilic oil (S/O/hO) novel method was carried out and then in vitro and in vivo evaluation of the 5-FU-microsphere delivery system was conducted. The 5-FU microsphere delivery system prepared had sustainedrelease function and achieved local treatment efficacy for tumors. The encapsulation efficiency of the 5-FU microsphere delivery system was >90% [better than the fabrication method using water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W)]. The drug release profile from the 5-FU-loaded sustained-release microsphere delivery system matched the pseudo zero-order equation for 30 days in vitro. The plasma concentration of 5-FU was higher than the water solution by subcutaneous injection. The tumor growth rate of rabbits using the 5-FU microsphere delivery system was much lower than the rate in rabbit using a subcutaneous injection of 5-FU water solution. The 5-FU-loaded sustainedrelease microspheres using the novel method (S/O/hO) is a potential and effective method with which to inhibit tumor growth.Introduction 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the classical drugs for tumor chemotherapy (1,2). It has been used for colorectal tumors (3-6), pancreatic cancer (5,6), actinic keratosis (7,8) and breast tumors (9-12). As a systemic injection of 5-FU often leads to systemic toxic side-effects, tumor in situ sustained-release microspheres or a hydrogel delivery system will certainly improve the antitumor effects of the drug (13,14). Different delivery systems for 5-FU have been developed, including microsphere delivery systems (15), nanospheres (16), 5-FU microspheres for brain tumor therapy (17), 5-FU microspheres for malignant glioma therapy (18), 5-FU hydrogels for drug administration in vivo (19), matrix microspheres containing a 5-FU coat using Eudragit S100 (20), and nanoscale-particles for topical delivery (21), to name just a few (22-29). The specific delivery system can reduce the systemic toxicity and prevent anticancer drug degradation (30-33). However, different methods have different weaknesses such as low encapsulation efficiency, burst release or insufficient duration for drug release.We previously developed various preparation methods for biological molecular protein drug delivery such as the waterin-oil-in-hydrophilic oil-in-water (W/O/hO/W) method (34), solid-in-oil-in-oil-in-water (S/O/O/W) method (35-37), and solid-in-oil-in-hydrophilic oil-in-ethanol (S/O/hO/E) method (38,39,40). The chemical agents were not microencapsulated in the microspheres using these preparation methods. The present study aimed to develop a 5-FU-loaded sustained-release microsphere system using a novel meth...