Multicellular spheroids as a three-dimensional tumor cell model for esophageal und esophagogastric junction cancers

Working with cell lines in monolayer culture implies a lot of difficulties regarding the comparability of the behaviour to the complex in vivo situation including growth and resistance mechanisms. Three-dimensional multicellular spheroids (MCS) supplied per diffusionem are known to mimic the growth characteristics of solid tumors and to develop gradients in nutriens like oxygen and degradation products with increasing size. Cells cultivated as MCS are higher differentiated than in monolayer culture and have a similar extracellular matrix system. The model simulates solid micrometastases and microregions between…