Cell death induced by menadione (vitamin K-3,2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) has been investigated in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells. Menadione was found to induce both apoptosis and necrosis in HL-60 cells. Low concentration ($1{sim}$50 ${mu}$M) of menadione induced apoptotic cell death, which was demonstrated by typical DNA ladder patterns on agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry analysis. In contrast, a high concentration of menadione (100 ${mu}$M) induced necrotic cell death, which was demonstrated by DNA smear pattern in agarose gel electrophoresis. Necrotic cell death was accompanied with a great reduction of cell viability. Menadione activated caspase-3, as evidenced by both increased protease activity and proteolytic cleavage of 116 kDa poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) into 85 kDa cleavage product. Caspase-3 activity was maximum at 50 ${mu}$M of menadione, and very low at 100 ${mu}$M of menadione. Taken together, our results showed that menadione induced mixed types of cell death, apoptosis at low concentrations and necrosis at high concentrations in HL-60 cells.