p21 protein has been reported to be a critical downstream effector of p53 and a potent inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases. Thus, the p21 gene is thought to play a central role in tumor suppression. In this study we investigated p21 protein expression and mutation in gastric adenocarcinoma. A total of 76 primary gastric carcinoma specimens were immunohistochemically stained for p21 protein expression and evaluated the correlations between p21 expression and clinicopathologic features. In a proportion of them (20 cases), we also analyzed the possible presence of p21 gene mutations using PCR-SSCP method. Fourty seven out of 76 cases (61.8%) were p21-negative, and the remaining twenty nine cases (38.2%) were p21 -positive on immunostains. There was a correlation between the expression of p21, and the depth of tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis (p<0.05). No mutation of the p21 gene was detected in all of 20 tumor tissues. These results suggest that the status of p21 expression may have prognostic value in gastric adenocarcinoma.