To structurally relate anticancer drug tamoxifen used in the treatment of breast cancer, a sequence of compounds is designed and synthesized as potential drug candidates. McMurry coupling reaction is used as the key synthetic step in the preparation of these analogues and the ratios of E/Z-isomers are determined on the basis of NMR and HPLC experiments. The new compounds are found to be cytotoxic in the micromolar range with 60 human tumor cell lines at one dose and five dose concentration levels. Detailed studies on the most active compounds 11-13 show these compounds are capable to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Finally, with the aim to correlate the antiproliferative activity with an intracellular target(s), the effect on relaxation activity of DNA topoisomerase-II is assayed. The relevance of interaction of most active compounds with topoisomerase-II is demonstrated which is also supported by docking studies.