All patients had histologically proven locally recurrent or metastatic adenocarcinomas of the breast (n = 13, 62%), ovary (n = 7, 33%) or lung (n = 1, 5%) which is not amenable to curative resection and elevated MUC1 levels as determined by tumour immunohistochemistry or serum tumour marker at any time since diagnosis of cancer. This evidence concerns the gene MUC1 and cancer.