The zygosity of 19 colorectal carcinomas (either near-diploid or polyploid) from patients known to be heterozygous for RFLPs located on chromosome 18 or on the short arm of chromosome 17 has been examined. In most cases, at least one allele was significantly under-represented. The reason for the absence of complete loss of heterozygosity was investigated for 5 polyploid tumors. It was shown that the diploid component which, in these tumors, is essentially composed of non-neoplastic cells, remains heterozygous as the polyploid component invariably loses heterozygosity. The results strongly suggest that many colorectal carcinomas originate from a single cell which had lost at least part of either chromosome 18 or of one short arm of chromosome 17, or both.