A large number of numerical and structural aberrations were analyzed in human tumor metastatic cells and 13q14 aberrations were frequently detected in some types of metastatic cancers. The rearrangement of 13q14 was identified previously in two lung adenocarcinoma cell lines with the same origin but different metastatic potential AGZY83-a and Anip973. BRI gene showed different expression levels in the cell lines as revealed by mRNA differential display (mRNA DD) in the two cell lines, and located in 13q14. In order to investigate the relationship between 13q14 abnormalities and tumor metastasis, a painting probe (13q) was used to hybridize three G-banded NSCLC cell lines with different metastatic potential. The major abnormality of 13q differs among different cell lines, including 13q32-33 frequent breakpoint in these three cell lines. But low metastatic potential cell lines PAa, SPC-1-A were not found breakpoint in 13q14, while 95D cell line with high metastatic potential had the common breakpoint 13q14 in two cell clones. The results suggested that the breakage at 13q14 may possibly be related to lung cancer metastasis. The affirmative relationship between 13q14 aberration and NSCLC needs further investigation.