Nutlin-3 stabilizes and activates p53, induces G1 and G2 phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in osteosarcoma (OS) cells, and is based on p53-MDM2, meaning that this apoptosis and growth inhibition occurs in OS cells with wild-type p53, such as U-2 OS cells, but not MG63 and SaOS2 cells with mutant p53 or deletion of p53 do not exhibit Nutlin-3 dependent growth inhibition [77]. Here, MDM2 is linked to osteosarcoma.