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Five complexes, [Cu(L) 2 ]·4.5H 2 O ( 1 ), [Cu(HL) 2 ](NO 3 ) 2 ·CH 3 OH ( 2 ) {[Cu 2 (L) 2 (NO 3 )(H 2 O) 2 ]·(NO 3 )} n ( 3 ), [Cu 2 (HL) 2 (SO 4 ) 2 ]·2CH 3 OH ( 4 ) and [Cu 4 (L) 4 Cl 4 ]·5H 2 O ( 5 ) based on HL (where HL = 2-acetylpyrazine isonicotinoyl hydrazone) have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction analyses. The counter anion and organic base during the synthesis procedure influence the structures of the complexes efficiently, which generate five complexes as mono-, bi-, tetra-nuclear and one-dimensional structures. The antitumor activities of the complexes 1 – 5 (except for complex 3 with the poor solubility) against the Patu8988 human pancreatic cancer, ECA109 human esophagus cancer and SGC7901 human gastric cancer cell lines are screened by MTT assay. The results indicate that the chelation of Cu(II) with the ligand is responsible for the observed high cytotoxicity of the copper(II) complexes and the 1:2 copper species 1 and 2 demonstrate lower antitumor activities than that of the 1:1 copper species 4 and 5 . In addition, the in vitro apoptosis inducing activity of the copper(II) complex 5 against SGC7901 cell line is determined. And the results show that the complex can bring about apoptosis of the cancerous cells in vitro . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]