Two hundred eighty-five primary human carcinomas of the urinary bladder were examined for allelic loss on chromosome 14q. Seventeen highly polymorphic dinucleotide markers spanning the long arm of this acrocentric chromosome were selected for fine PCR-based mapping. Loss of heterozygosity for at least one marker was observed in 72 (25.3%) tumors. Thirty-four of these 72 tumors (47.2%) lost the entire long arm (monosomy), as suggested by loss of heterozygosity at all informative sites. Allelic loss on 14q occurred in all grades and stages of bladder cancer but was more commonly associated with muscle-invasive tumors (Ta, 9.4%; T1, 24.1%; and > or = T2, 41%). A deletion map of 16 primary tumors with partial losses delineated two minimal regions of loss. One region (approximately 2 cM) was bounded by markers D14S75 and D14S288 and the other (approximately 3 cM) by D14S51 and D14S267. Our results demonstrate that 14q loss is common in invasive bladder cancer and suggest that two potential suppressor loci at 14q12 and 14q32.1-32.2 may contribute to the genetic progression of this common cancer.