anchorage dependence

an·chor·age de·pen·dence

the need of normal cells for an appropriate surface to be attached to for them to grow in culture.
The requirement by normal cells to attach to a surface to grow and divide in vitro; when cells lose anchorage dependence they no longer respond to external growth controls, which often correlates with tumourigenicity in vivo. It is a hallmark of malignant transformation and can be induced by oncogenic viruses

anchorage dependence

A property of cells that can grow and proliferate only if fixed to a substrate. Many cancer cells do not show anchorage dependence and can be grown in a liquid culture.