The enzyme D-galactose oxidase (GO) oxidizes the carbon-6 position of the hydroxyl groups of galactose-N-acetyl galactosamine, which are commonly present in colon cancer cells and in rectal mucin of patients with colon cancer. We have studied the marker disaccharide galactose and N-acetylgalactosamine on tissue sections by the GO-Schiff reagent in normal, preneoplastic, and neoplastic human colorectal epithelial and compared it with peanut agglutinin reactivity. Fifty-seven (81.4%) of 70 carcinomas, 83.3% (10/12) of precancerous lesions, 50% (10/20) of the mucosa remote from cancer, and 58.1% (25/43) of the mucosa immediately adjacent to cancer showed a positive reaction with GO-Schiff, but the normal control mucosa was nonreactive. The GO-Schiff reagent showed an intense reactivity with mucinous adenocarcinomas and poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas. An intense reactivity was also seen in the intracellular mucus of abnormal dilated crypts (polyps, five of five cases; colitis, four of seven cases; and remote mucosa, 10 of 20 cases). Comparison of peanut agglutinin and GO-Schiff reactivity showed that the nonmucinous (glandular) adenocarcinomas less frequently reacted with the GO-Schiff sequence. Our results showed that the carbohydrate moiety detected by the two techniques may not necessarily be the same, warranting further biochemical analysis. Meanwhile, the data suggested that, like peanut agglutinin, the GO-Schiff sequence has the potential to identify the tumor marker either at the tissue level or by a mucin test for screening colorectal cancer or precancer.