Signet-ring-cell carcinomas were induced in the stomach of 12 beagle dogs by p.o. administration of N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (ENNG), and the morphology and modes of cell proliferation in an incipient stage of cancer growth were studied with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) incorporation. From 5 to 27 months after the completion of 8 months' carcinogen treatment, minute carcinomas were found in the stomachs of 9 dogs. Before sacrifice, the dogs were given a single or repeated i.v. injections of BrdUrd for 1-3 days. Minute signet-ring-cell carcinomas were found to form a layered structure, in which the cancer cells proliferated in the lamina propria at the gland-neck level and differentiated to postmitotic signet-ring cells at the upper and lower levels of the mucosa. From repeated injections of BrdUrd, the time required for all the proliferative cells to be labelled with BrdUrd (reflecting the maximum cell-cycle time) was estimated to be 1.7 days for the normal glands, and 2.7 days for minute signet-ring-cell carcinomas. From the labelling index with BrdUrd as well as from the morphology, earliest carcinomas were identified in the single gland. There remained atrophic normal epithelium commonly in the single-gland lesions. Proliferative atypical cells appeared to be shed into the stroma passively through the atrophy and subsequent collapse of the gland rather than through active invasion. This may be a reason why cancer cells in minute signet-ring cell carcinomas preserved the normal pattern of cell renewal movement to form the layered structure.