Monoenoic acid fractions were isolated from phosphatidycholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, triglycerides, and cholesteryl esters of hepatoma 7288CTC, host liver, and normal liver from animals maintained on chow and fat free diets. Hexadecanoate (16:1), octadecenoate (18:1), and eisosenoate (20:1) fractions were analyzed quantitatively for their isomeric composition. The fat free diet had little or no effect relative to the chow diet on the isomeric composition of 16:1, 18:1, and 20:1 from any lipid class in either heptoma, host liver, or normal liver. Host livers were reduced in palmitoleic acid, and oleic and eicos-11-enoic acids were increased relative to normal liver. The 16:1 fraction from triglyceride of normal liver, host liver, and hepatoma contained 90, 80, and 75% palmitoleic acid, respectively. The 20:1 fraction from triglycerides of normal liver, host liver, and hepatoma contained ca. 55, 70, and 60% eicos-11-enoic acid, respectively, with the remainder consisting of eicos-13-enoic acid. The proportion of vaccenic acid in the 18:1 fraction was 60, 50, 20, and 25% for phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, triglycerides, and cholesteryl esters, respectively, with oleic acid making up the balance. In contrast, all hepatoma lipid classes exhibited the same proportion of oleic (70%) and vaccenic (30%) acids. These data appear to be the first to demonstrate lipid class specificity for isomeric octadecenoic acids in normal liver and the loss of this specificity in a neoplasm.