We have previously shown, using tumor cell populations genetically tagged by random integrations of plasmid DNA, that metastatically-competent clonal cell variants have a strong growth advantage within primary tumors over their non-metastatic counterparts. As a result, primary tumors can become overgrown by the progeny of such cells, a process referred to as "clonal dominance" of primary tumors by metastatically-competent cells. Because of the well-known "metastatic inefficiency" of the multi-step cascade process of spread and growth, clonal dominance within primary tumors may be necessary for distant metastatic spread or increase the probability of its occurrence. To examine this hypothesis mice were inoculated s.c. with mixture of non-metastatic and genetically tagged, metastatically-competent mouse mammary carcinoma cells in defined ratios, but always containing an excess of the unmarked non-metastatic population. Progressive overgrowth of the metastatic subpopulation was monitored as a function of time by Southern analysis of DNA obtained from mixed primary tumors. This allowed us to evaluate the effects that surgical removal of the primary tumor had before, during and after effective clonal dominance, and what influence this had on the subsequent formation of distant metastases. Surgical removal of primary tumors before metastatic clonal dominance resulted in a low (0.25%) frequency of lung metastases, whereas removal just 1 or 2 weeks later during or after clonal dominance was achieved resulted in a high (75-100%) frequency of such metastases. Our results support the hypothesis that dominance of primary tumors by metastatically competent cells may be necessary for distant metastatic spread, and also suggest that clonal interactions play a significant role in modulating the metastatic ability of tumor cells in vivo.