Two methods have been used to covalently cross-link [125I]-salmon calcitonin to its receptor on a human lung carcinoma cell line, BEN, and the human breast cancer cell lines T47D and MCF 7. The first method was to use a specific photoaffinity derivative of salmon calcitonin and the second employed the chemical cross-linker, disuccinimidyl suberate. In both cases a cross-linked component of approximate molecular weight 80-90,000 on BEN cells was identified by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This is consistent with the size of the cross-linked component found on T47D breast cancer cells using the photoactive salmon calcitonin as described in previous work. Disuccinimidyl suberate was unable to cross-link [125I]-salmon calcitonin either on T47D or MCF cells. However, photoactive salmon calcitonin cross-linked to a component of approximately 80-90,000 Mr on the MCF 7 cells. Thus, whereas the photoactive salmon calcitonin could cross-link a similar receptor component in all cell lines, the ability of disuccinimidyl suberate to do so was apparently cell specific. These data confirm that the calcitonin receptor comprises a component of approximately 85,000 Mr in cell lines examined thus far.