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Proliferative responses to human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) E5 peptides were determined for short-term cell lines derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 75 women. Cell lines from 16 of the 75 women proliferated in response to stimulation with pooled E5 peptides; this was most common for patients with low-grade squamous cervical intraepithelial lesions (LSIL; 6 of 15 patients, 40%) and less frequent for asymptomatic women with no cervical lesions (4 of 20, 20%), those with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL; 5 of 33, 15%) and others with cervical cancer (1 of 7, 14%, P¯0±027). Amongst these patients, proliferative responses were exclusive to those that were positive for HPV-16 DNA (12 of 41, 29%; c.f. none of 13 HPV-16 DNA-negativ