We investigated the clinicopathological and genetic characteristics including patients' gender, age, tumour location, growth pattern, Dukes' stage, DNA ploidy, S-phase fraction, PCNA, apoptosis, c-erbB-2, bcl-2, K-ras, p53, DCC and heat shock protein in 32 mucinous carcinomas versus 261 non-mucinous carcinomas in the colorectum. Sixty percent of mucinous carcinomas were located in the right colon, 13% in the left colon and 27% in the rectum (p=0.01). More mucinous carcinomas grew in expanding pattern than non-mucinous carcinomas (66% vs 39%, p=0.005). Compared with non-mucinous carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma had more K-ras mutations (50% vs 25%, p=0.02), but less p53 expression (72% vs 49%, p=0.02) and less apoptotic activity (19% vs 51%, p=0.01). We further confirm that the mucinous carcinoma in the colorectum represents a distinct clinicopathologic and genetic features as compared to non-mucinous tumour, and may have a different biological behaviour.