AIM:To asses the presence and clinical significance of metallothionein,(MT) in primary invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. METHOD: 96 cases of routinely fixed and paraffin-embedded primary breast carcinomas were investigated with the labelled avidin biotin immunohistochemical method. RESULTS: The positive staining for MT observed was 52.1% (50/96). In most cases both nuclear and cytoplasmic staining was seen. A statistically association was found between MT positive staining and nuclear grade( P