Objective To explore the effect of adriamycin on the characteristics of colony derived from human adrenal cortical carcinoma cells (ACC) SW-13.Methods Treatment with Adriamycin (ADM) was used in BALB/c-nude mouse tumor xenograft model established using the ACC cell line SW-13.The characteristic of colony was assessed for the formation rates,the percentagc of three colony types and growth curve of single cell.Hoechst33342 dyeing test was used to test drug resistance.Results The Single-cell colony formation rate of experimental group were significantly higher than control group (P ＜ 0.05),and the holoclone percentage of experimental group were significantly higher than control group (P ＜ 0.05).In the Hoechst33342 dyeing tcst,the fluorescence intensity of control was higher than experimental group.Conclusion The treatment of ADM in vivo is beneficial for the colony formations of ACC cell and the formations rate of holoclone,and can improve the ability of drug resistance of ACC cell SW-13.