A malignant stromal tumor of the testis with an osteosarcoma component and five of its metastases mainly containing osteosarcoma have been analyzed for RB1 and TP53 abnormalities. Whereas in the primary tumor and in some of the metastases loss of heterozygosity could not be detected for RB1 or for the 17p13 region in which TP53 is located, other metastases showed such losses of heterozygosity. By polymerase chain reaction analysis an 18-base pair deletion from exon 5 of the TP53 gene was found in a small proportion of primary tumor cells and in one of the metastases, but not in the other metastases. Therefore, in this case neither RB1 nor TP53 seems to play an essential role in the initiation of osteosarcoma.