Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the world. Overactivity of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) is frequently detected in colorectal carcinoma. PI3K signaling plays a pivotal role in intracellular signal transduction pathways involved in cell growth, cellular transformation, and tumorigenesis. To specifically inhibit PI3K activity in colorectal cancer cells, we constructed a siRNA against the PI3K regulatory subunit p85alpha and transfected it into LoVo and SW480 cells. In the present study, treatment of colorectal cancer cells with PI3K p85alpha-specific siRNA inhibited cell proliferation, induced G1 phase cell cycle arrest and sensitized colorectal cancer cells to 5-FU-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, depletion of PI3K p85alpha resulted in significant activation of three Forkhead box class O (FoxO) transcription factors, which inhibited the expression of cyclin D1, cdk4 and induced expression of p27/Kip1. Activation of FoxO transcription factors also increased the expression of FasL. Thus, our results indicate that siRNA-mediated gene silencing of PI3K p85alpha may be a useful therapeutic strategy for colorectal carcinoma.