The natural history of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder is somewhat variable, with a significant number of tumour recurrences that occasionally evolve towards an infiltrating disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in 76 TCC specimens, and then correlate such findings with the overall patient survival. However, other classical prognostic clinical and pathological variables such as pathological grade and stage, koilocytosis, age and sex were also tested. HPV DNA was investigated by means of the highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR). DNA primers specific for HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 were used. Our results showed that 7 (9.21%) out of 76 such cases were reactive for HPV 16 DNA; one of them also reacted with HPV 6 DNA. The statistical analysis was done by the Kaplan-Meier method, Wilcoxon's generalised test for studying the differences in survival curves and Cox's regression analysis for independent prognostic factors. A significant P-value was found for pathological grade (P < 0.0001) and stage (P < 0.0001), HPV 16 DNA (P = 0.0418) and koliocytosis (P = 0.0140). Thus, pathological grade was the only independent factor in the bladder cancer survival. These observations may prove useful in prognostic stratification of patients with TCC of the bladder.