Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can induce various transformed cells to undergo growth arrest and/or death. Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) is an HDAC inhibitor which is in phase I/II clinical trials and has shown antitumor activity in hematologic and solid tumors at doses well tolerated by patients. HDAC is the target for SAHA, but the mechanisms of the consequent induced death of transformed cells are not completely understood. In this study, we report that SAHA induced polyploidy in human colon cancer cell line HCT116 and human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and MBA-MD-468, but not in normal human embryonic fibroblast SW-38 and normal mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The polyploid cells lost the capacity for proliferation and committed to senescence. The induction of polyploidy was more marked in HCT116 p21WAF1-/- or HCT116 p53-/- cells than in wild-type HCT116. The development of senescence of SAHA-induced polyploidy cells was similar in all colon cell lines. The present findings indicate that the HDAC inhibitor could exert antitumor effects by inducing polyploidy, and this effect is more marked in transformed cells with nonfunctioning p21WAF1 or p53 genes.