Studies on esophageal cancer cells in vitro.

A number of studies on esophageal cancer cells in vitro have been reported since the establishment of a human esophageal epithelial cancer cell line (Eca 109) in China in 1972. Some of these are reviewed here; the heterogeneity of esophageal cancer cells, comparative cytochemical and ultrastructural studies on cancer cells and normal esophageal epithelial cells of primary culture, comparative cytomorphological observation of a cancer cell line and cancer cell smears from patients by balloon technique, establishment of spheroid culture for the study of cancer cell differentiation and invasiveness, and immunological study on esophageal cancer in vitro.