Abstract: Objective: To establish a new human esophageal carcinoma cell line that is paclitax-el-resistant (Ec9706/P-1) and to research its biological characteristics and provide evidence for clinical treatment of esophageal carcinoma. Methods: We established the paclitaxel-resitant esophageal carci-noma cell line Ec9706/P-1 by treating the Ec9706 parental esophageal carcinoma cells intermittently with low concentrations of drugs. Multidrug resistance to anticancer agents was evaluated by MTT as-say. Flow cytometry (FCM) was performed to analyze the cell cycle of Ec9706/P-1 and Ec9706. Rho-damine 123 efflux was assessed and the expression of p-glycoprotein was evaluated. Expression of mul-tidrug resistant protein and multidrug resistance-associated protein was determined by immunohisto-chemistry. Results: Ec9706/P-1 and Ec9706 were not significantly different microscopically other thana slight difference in volume. Growth of Ec9706/P-1 was slow, with an extended doubling time, and most of the cancer cells were found in stage G₀+ G₁(P<0.05). The drug resistance index for Ec9706/P-1 was 6.68, based on data from the MTT assays. Mean fluorescence intensity in Ec9706/P-1 signifi-cantly declined by Rh123 assay. Expression of multidrug resistant protein in Ec9706/P-1 was signifi-cantly elevated (P<0.05). Expression of multidrug resistance-associated protein was not statistically sig-nificant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Ec9706/P-1 was confirmed to be multidrug resistant. However, expres-sion of multidrug resistant protein alone did not explain this phenotype and the mechanism seems quite complicated.