The prevalence of human papillomavirus HPV-16DNA sequences in 57 penile carcinoma biopsies was examined using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with type specific internal probes, employing HPV consensus primers from the L1 region. The cases comprised 39 typical squamous cell carcinoma and 18 specimens with different subtype. PCR products were analyzed and HPV-16DNA was detected in a high percentage of specimens. Thirty-eight biopsies were HPV-16DNA positive. This determination was correlated with cellular differentiation and growth pattern. Our data corroborates that squamous cell carcinoma was invariably associated with HPV-16DNA.