Much information has been reported on the genetic and genomic alterations in colorectal cancer (CRC) in literature; however, nonrandom chromosomal alterations in Chinese CRC patients have only one report in Hong Kong. To further identify genomic alteration in primary sporadic colorectal carcinomas (SCRC) in Chinese patients and understand the molecular mechanisms in CRC development, progress, and metastasis, we used comparative genomic hybridization to screen for losses and/or gains of DNA copies along chromosomes in 24 SCRC tissues from 24 patients. Comparative genomic hybridization was applied to investigate the genomic imbalance in 24 cases of primary SCRC and compared the differences between tumors in different loci and between tumors with and without metastasis. The common chromosomal alterations in the SCRC included gains of chromosomes 1q, 2q, 4q, 7q, 8q, 11q, 13q, 20q and also losses of chromosomes 9p, 16q, 17p, 18q. Among them, gains of 1q, 7q, 20q and losses of 17p, 18q were related with lymph node metastasis of SCRC (P<0.05). The gains of 4q, 7q, 20q and losses of 9p, 18q were related with the sites (P<0.05), colon and rectum, respectively; gain of 20q and loss of 9p were commonly found in the colon cancer; gain of 4q, 7q and loss of 18q were easily seen in the rectal cancer. There are multiple regions of chromosomes with copy-number changes in SCRC. The tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes on these regions may be involved in the development and progress of SCRC. The chromosome 1q, 2q, 4q, 7q, 8q, 11q, 13q, 20q regions may have oncogenes such as epidermal growth factor, MET, platelet-derived growth factor receptor A, and 9p, 16q, 17p, 18q regions may have tumor suppressor genes such as p53,DCC, IGFR1 associated with occurrence of SCRC. The chromosome 1q, 7q, 20q, 17p, 18q regions may have genes related with metastasis of SCRC. The development mechanisms of colon cancer and rectal cancer may not be completely similar. Additionally, gain of chromosome 1q was verified by the second technique-Real-time reverse transcription PCR.