In this work, we propose a new design for biodegradable composite coatings obtained by laser methods, which are aimed at evaluating the effects of active antitumoral elements on osteosarcoma cells. Our approach relies on embedding curcumin, which is a natural polyphenol having antitumoral properties, within biodegradable copolymer coatings (i.e. polyvinyl alcohol-polyethylene glycol - PVA-PEG) by using matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE). The structural and morphological characteristics of the coatings were tailored by using different solvents (water, ethanol, benzene, dimethylsufoxide) as deposition matrix. The morphological characteristics of the resulting films were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), whereas their chemical composition was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). These characteristics were correlated with the degradation behavior by using ellipsometry (SE) and AFM measurements data. The in vitro study of the MG-63 osteosarcoma cell behavior indicates that the developed hybrid coatings significantly decreased osteosarcoma cell viability and proliferation potential. The physico-chemical characteristics of the thin films, along with the preliminary in vitro analyses, suggest that our developed polymeric hybrid coatings represent an efficient way to tackle the design of antitumoral surfaces, with applications in biomedicine. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.