Objective To investigate the correlated factors of peritoneal dissemination and lympah node metastasis from gastric cancer, the prognosis of patients with peritoneal dissemination and N_2 lymph node metastasis, and the impact of palliative surgery on the prognosis. Methods Based on our database built from 1994, the clinicopathologic data and the outcomes of the follow-up were analyzed respectively. Results The clinicopathologic factors correlated with peritoneal dissemination included T_4, hepatic metastasis, the primary tumor involving the whole stomach, undifferentiated carcinoma, female sex and lymph node metastasis, while those correlated with lymph node metastasis included the primary tumor involving the whole stomach, Borrmann III, T_2, T_3 and T_4, hepatic metastasis and peritoneal dissemination (P