Background Monolayer cell culture models are the traditional culture models used for in vitro research of pancreatic carcinoma chemosensitivity. However, these models neglect the interactions between tumor cells and the impact of the tumor microenvironment. Such tumor cell monolayers poorly mimic the solid tumor microenvironment. The present study aimed to investigate the chemosensitivity characteristics of pancreatic cancer cells in a three-dimensional culture system by analyzing the differences in drug sensitivity between a scattered cell culture model and a multicellular spheroid culture model.Methods Three pancreatic cancer cell lines (SW1990, ASPC-1 and PCT-3) were cultured in three-dimensional collagen gels as well as in traditional two-dimensional monolayers. The chemosensitivities of the pancreatic carcinoma cells to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin in vitro were detected by both the Cell Counting Kit-8 test and the collagen gel droplet-embedded culture drug-sensitivity test.Results In the two-dimensional culture model, differences in the chemosensitivities of the cloned pancreatic carcinoma cells and scattered cells existed for some concentrations of 5-FU, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin. In the three-dimensional culture model, there were significant differences in the chemosensitivities of the pancreatic cancer cells between the scattered cells and multicellular spheroids (P