Objective To study the altered radiobiological effect of simulative intensity-modulated radiotherapy (SIMR) in cultured human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells and the related mechanism. Methods Single cell suspension of exponentially growing CNE-2 cells, a poor differentiated NPC cell line, was seeded and cultured for 12 hours, then the cells were irradiated in two different models by 6 MV X-ray beams at 3 Gy/min. In single fraction irradiation (SFR) model, cells were irradiated a single fraction of 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 Gy within 0 to 3 minutes. In S1MR model, cells were irradiated 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 Gy in 5 frac-tions with interval of 8.0-8.5 minutes between. Clonogenic assay was performed to determine the radiosen-sitivity. Cellular apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry. RT-PCR was used to detect mRNA expressions of Bax and Bcl-2, Respectively. Results Compared with SFR group, the survival fraction in SIMR group was higher at all the dose levels. The values of α, β, D0 and Dq were higher in SIMR group than in SFR group. At dose levels of 2 Gy, 4 Gy and 6 Gy, The early and late apoptotic cells in SIMR group were lower than in SFR group (21.20%: 15.89%, F=18.51, P=0.020;13.00%: 10.20, F=15.67, P=0.040).The mRNA expression of Bax was upregulated in a dose-dependent manner in the both groups. Compared with SFR group, the mRNA expression of Bax in SIMR group was lower at all the dose levels (Mean value of 76.75% : 62.50%, F =36.57, P =0.000). Bcl-2 mRNA expression at every dose level had no significant difference between the two groups (Mean value of 29.25% : 29.75%, F=0.74, P=0.800). Conclusions Prolonged delivery time in SIMR model can decrease the radiobiological effects.