The inhibitory effects of doenjang extracts and linoleic acid(LA) which was identified as one of the active compounds in doenjang on the growth of human cancer cells were studied, comparing to the actions on normal cells. Methanol extract and hexane fraction from doenjang exhibited the strong growth inhibitory effect on HT-29 human colon carcinoma cells. Inhibitory effects of chloroform, ethyl acetate, butanol and aqueous fractions on the cancer cells were observed, moderately or weakly. When cell counts of SNU-C$_1$human colon carcinoma cells were determined daily for 6 days, the inhibitory effect of hexane fraction on this cell line was higher than that of the methanol extract from doenjang. LA completely suppressed the growth of SNU-C$_1$cells after 4 days, while conjugated linoleic acid(CLA) resulted in 98% inhibition after 6 days. With the addition of LA and other free fatty acids such as stearic acid, oleic acid, linolenic acid and ${gamma}$-linolenic acid (${gamma}$-LnA) to the culture system, the growth of HT-29 cells and SNU-C$_1$cells was greatly suppressed after 6 days. Inhibitory effects of LA ${gamma}$-LnA on the growth of these cells were stronger than other fatty acids. On the growth of AZ-521 human gastric carcinoma cells, LA and CLA completely cuppressed the growth of the cells after 4 days and 3 days, respectively. At the level of 0.001%~0.01% of LA, there was no cytotoxic effect on normal rat kidney cells and normal intestine human cells. These results showed that LA, a major active compound of doenjang, had strong inhibitory effects on the growth of human cancer cells without damaging normal cells.