Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) is a recently developed molecular cytogenetic technique, which makes it possible to detect chromosomal alteration in solid tumors. To determine whether chromosome alterations are related to cervical carcinoma, we have analyzed 33 cases (24 squamous cell carcinomas and 9 adenocarcinomas, stage Ib-IIIb) from tumor tissues and paraffin embedded tissues by CGH. The cut off value of CGH profiles was 1.15 and 0.85 (green/red ratio). Chromosomal aberrations were detected in 30 out of 33 cases (90.9%). In 32 cases, chromosome 3q was most frequently affected and had greater copy numbers in 20 of tbe 33 cases (60.6%). Interestingly, out of those 20 cases, 10 cases were shown to have a high-level of amplification of chr 3q. In addition to chr 3q, chromosomal gains were observed in chr 1q, 1p, 5p, Sq, 12p, 15q, 19q, 20q, Xp, and Xq. Furthermore chromosomal loss was detected, most commonly in chromosome 11q (11/33). Although less frequent, common losses were also detected in chr 2q, 4p, 4q, Sq, 1 1p, 17p, and 18p. In addition, there were cases of gross chromosome loss for chr 4, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and X. In cases involving whole arm deletion, we utilized fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using specific probes a-satellite. We performed HPV typing for 16 and 18 usiag polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southem blot analyses. Out of 33 tumor samples, 24 cases (72,7%) were HPV 16 positive, while only 6 cases were positive for HPV 18. two cases were positive for both HPV 16 and 18. We believe that a gain of chromosome 3q as a reeurrent chromosomal aberration may contribute to the tumorigenesis of cervical cancer. However, we could not correlate a pattern of chromosomal aberration with tumor stage or histologic type in cervical cancer.