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Although the relationship among different biologic markers of breast cancer has been shown to be important in predicting cancer behavior, expression of these markers can be an attribute of the population under study. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among Egyptian women. We have studied a number of prognostic tumor markers in infiltrating ductal carcinoma in a group of Egyptian women and have correlated our results with traditional histologic parameters of behavior such as tumor nuclear grade and lymph node status. Seventy-five cases of infiltrating ductal breast cancer were evaluated from pathology archives. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections were immunohistochemically stained for PCNA, p53, c-erB-2, metallothionein, cathepsin-D, and GST-pi using specific antibodies and a standard avidin-biotin method. Most high-grade tumors were associated with higher PCNA expression and p53 abnormality. There was a significant difference between node-negative and node-positive tumors with regard to their metallothionein content; other markers, however, did not differ significantly between node-negative and node-positive tumors. PCNA expression, metallothionein expression, and p53 mutation appear to be markers of aggressive tumor behavior in Egyptian women with breast cancer.