Tissue specimens of primary and recurrent metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (A-RMS) from a 12 year old child were cultured and shown to contain A-RMS specific t(2;13) (q37;q14) chromosomal translocation and to be tumourigenic in nude mice. Whereas c-myc protooncogene was neither amplified nor grossly rearranged, both biopsy samples were demonstrated to have 5-fold amplification of N-myc gene sequence. N-myc gene was also amplified in cell cultures produced by primary and metastatic tumour biopsies. Such a model for A-RMS has not been previously available.