Diethylnitrosamine following partial hepatectomy followed by phenobarbital promotion was used to study changes in aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity during rat hepatocarcinogenesis. Over a period of 350 days, animals were killed at intervals and the ALDH phenotype of normal liver and any lesions was characterized by histochemical analysis, total activity assays and gel electrophoresis using propionaldehyde and NAD+ to detect normal liver ALDH activities, and benzaldehyde and NADP+ for tumor-associated ALDH. In contrast to previously tested protocols, no significant changes in ALDH activity were demonstrable by histochemistry or total activity assays in preneoplastic livers. However, nine of 16 (56%) of the hepatocellular carcinomas examined expressed the tumor-associated ALDH phenotype. The present results are integrated with previous observations as a hypothesis explaining the roles of initiation and promotion in expression of the tumor-associated aldehyde dehydrogenase phenotype.