A comparative analysis of T24 human bladder carcinoma cells and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MeNNG)-transformed derivatives (MeNNG-T24 cells) revealed the following: (i) The presence of an activated c-Ha-ras gene (in the absence of the normal allele) is insufficient to confer upon T24 cells a tumor-associated phenotype. (ii) MeNNG-transformed T24 cells not only acquire tumor-associated (in vitro) traits (growth in soft agar and rhodamine retention) but, are highly tumorigenic in nude mice. (iii) It is possible to render T24 cells tumorigenic by chemical transformation; therefore, the reason that T24 cells lack tumorigenicity is not because of possible incompatibilities between these cells and nude mice but, in fact, because T24 cells are not malignant. (iv) The loss of expression of a transformation-related Mr 67,000 phosphoprotein by MeNNG-T24 cells after explantation of these cells from nude mouse tumors to in vitro culture indicates that culture conditions can be responsible for rapid phenotypic conversion of human tumor cell lines.