In a patient with an EBV-genome-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma, an EBV-genome-negative inguinal lymph node without histological evidence of malignant lymphoma or metastatic carcinoma growth was found to contain a 14q+ marker chromosome, identified as an 8;14 translocation, in all cells analyzed. This observation indicates that chromosome aberrations may precede histological signs of malignancy. The possible implication of this finding in relation to the postulated role of the 14q+ marker and lymphoma development is discussed.