AbstractRoutinely processed fine‐needle aspirations of metastatic squamous‐cell carcinoma (SCC) were analyzed for human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV‐16) using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), an in vitro DNA amplification method. HPV‐16 DNA was detected in five of seven (71%) metastases from SCC of the uterine cervix. In two cases in which the primary tumor was available for comparison, the HPV‐16 DNA content of the primary tumor and of the metastasis was identical. HPV‐16 was not found in a metastatic SCC from the lung or in a metastatic nasopharyngeal SCC. These findings demonstrate that HPV‐16 DNA sequences can be readily detected in routinely processed fine‐needle aspirations using the polymerase chain reaction. The finding of HPV‐16 DNA in a metastasis may serve to direct a search for a prima