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The heterogenous nature of breast tumours (Hawkins et al., 1977; Silfversward et al., 1980) complicates the application of oestrogen receptor assay results to the management of breast cancer. Much effort has therefore been expended on the development of histochemical assays to detect receptors in tissue sections, initially with oestrogenprotein conjugates (e.g. Pertschuk et al., 1979; Lee, 1978 and Walker et al., 1980) and more recently with antibodies against the receptor protein, both polyclonal (e.g. Lope-Pihie et al., 1985; Tamura et al., 1984) and monoclonal (Greene et al., 1980; Coffer & King, 1981). Few of these methods have been universally accepted or validated in other centres (e.g. McCarthy et al., 1980; Chamness, et al., 1980). In