The localization of BRCA1 protein was studied in 49 sporadic breast carcinomas for which allelic losses of BRCA1 have been investigated. One group consisted of 15 breast carcinomas having one allelic loss of BRCA1 and the other group of 34 breast carcinomas with no allelic loss of BRCA1. The localization of BRCA1 in the 2 groups was performed using polyclonal antibodies (K-18; C-20; D-20; I-20) raised against BRCA1 and by comparing frozen and paraffin-embedded tissues. We show that no correlation was found between the expression of BRCA1 protein and allelic loss of BRCA1. But, the nuclear detection of BRCA1 in frozen samples was improved when compared to paraffinized ones.