Tumor-associated monoclonal antibodies were radiolabeled with 125I and 131I and given i.v. in pairs to 19 patients 1-26 days prior to surgical excision of primary and metastatic breast, ovarian, and gastrointestinal tumors. For individual patients each monoclonal antibody was designated as specific or nonspecific according to prior immunoperoxidase staining results on the appropriate target neoplastic tissues. Quantitation of antibody uptake was performed on resected normal and neoplastic tissues. Although good tumor:non-tumor ratios were obtained with the specific antibodies (maximal tumor:blood ratio, 35.8:1 at 12 days postadministration), the absolute amount of radiolabel detected in tumors was small (mean value of 0.015% of total injected amount per g of tumor occurring 1 day postadministration). Furthermore, both specific and nonspecific antibodies accumulated in normal lymph nodes to a significant extent (mean value of 0.0026% of total injected amount per g of tissue occurring 1 day postadministration). Knowledge of such data is essential prior to considering therapeutic uses of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies.