We investigated the prognostic significance of Helix pomatia lectin (HPA) staining on disease-free and overall survival in 120 primary breast carcinomas. HPA staining was present in 58 (48%) of these carcinomas. It was significantly associated with axillary lymph node metastases (P < 0.001) and c-erbB-2 expression (P < 0.01). A univariate study revealed that disease-free and overall survival were significantly correlated with clinical stage, tumour size, axillary lymph node metastases. HPA staining and c-erbB-2 expression. In a multivariate study, all previous prognostic indicators except HPA staining and c-erbB-2 expression were independent factors. However, stratifying the patients on the basis of HPA and c-erbB-2 status suggested that HPA +/c-erbB-2+ status was predictive of a higher incidence of axillary lymph node metastases (P = 0.000001) and a poorer overall (P < 0.0002) and a shorter disease-free (P < 0.000006) survival when compared with the other subgroups, although this combination did not provide any additional prognostic information for overall (P = 0.3544) or disease-free (P = 0.7152) survival by a multivariate analysis. For patients in whom axillary lymph node dissection has not been performed, therefore, HPA and c-erbB-2 status seems to be a powerful tool to discriminate subpopulations with a high recurrence risk and shorter survival who should undergo more aggressive therapy.