Abstract: To study the expression of spontaneous apoptoqs in gastric carcinomas and its association with the biological characteristics of gastric carcinomas.Using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labellingCTUNEL)technique, We observed the apoptotic cells in situ in 53 gastric carcinoma tissues.The median apoptotic index in gastric carcinoma tissues was 5.76%.The apoptotic indexs had no correlation to the patient age, sex, tumor size, the depth of invasion;it was related to tumor cell differentiation, lymph node metastasis and Dukes' stages of tumor;(P<0.01 and P<0.05).Apoptotic indexs in the cases of well/moderate-differentiated, without lymph node metastasis or at stages I and II were significantly higher than in those poorly differentiated, with lymph node metastasis or stages IIIand IV. The results suggest that the higher occurrence of apoptosis in well/ moderate-differentinted gastric carcinomas may reflect their slowgrowing natu二，poorly differentiated gastric carcinomas and advanced stage gastric carcinomas may exist an escape mechanism from the process. Apoptosis may play an important role in the development of gastric carcinoma.