InBr3-catalyzed approach to synthesize 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-onederivatives (3a–3aa) has been developed. Notably, all the products were isolated by recrystallization and the reaction is accessible on a gram scale. Moreover, the reactions only require 10–60 min. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro anticanceractivity against four human cancer cell lines. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT