Hepatocellular, lung, and breast carcinoma and normal hepatocytes cell lines were exposed to 0 or 50 μM ARA for 30 min and then assessed for proliferative capacity, surface membrane-associated sphingomyelin (SM) content, neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) activity, beta 2 microglobulin (β2 m) expression, and ceramide (Cer) levels. The gene discussed is SMPD2; the disease is breast carcinoma.