&NA;Employing the monoclonal antibody CAM5.2, the sensitivity of immunohistologic staining was compared with conventional hematoxylin and eosin staining for detection of lymph‐node metastases from large‐bowel cancer. Ten patients who died unexpectedly early from recurrent disease were selected; 86 lymph nodes were examined. Where metastases were located they were readily identified by both methods but when the original lymph‐node sections were reviewed, attention was drawn to two metastatic deposits that had been overlooked previously. These results suggest that immunohistologic techniques offer no advantage in the identification of lymph‐node metastases in largebowel cancer.