In this study, the Korean Gastric Cancer Association collected 12,152 gastric cancer patients (5,380 in 1995, 6,772 in 1999) from 29 hospitals. Twelve clinicopathological factors- sex, age, operation date, tumor location, size, operation method, gross type of early gastric cancer, Borrmann type, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, stage-were summarized in a database file and analyzed. Chronological change has been evaluated between the patients in 1995 and those in 1999. Proportion of early gastric cancer has been increased from 28.6% in 1995 to 32.8% in 1999. The UICC staging was 25.3% (1995), 29.3% (1999) for stage Ia, 12.7%, 13.9% for stage Ib, 15.7%, 14.8% for stage II, 15.2%, 13.2% for stage IIIa, 8.2%, 6.3% for stage IIIb, and 20.1%, 18.1% for stage IV. The operation of each year was subtotal gastrectomy (67.6%, 67.3%), total gastrectomy (26.6%, 24.1%), proximal gastrectomy (0.3%, 3.6%), wedge resection (0.1%, 0.5%), bypass surgery (2.3%, 1.8%), and open biopsy (3.1%, 2.7%). In early gastric cancer, type IIc was the most common (44.5% in 1995, 42.8% in 1999). The incidence of upper one-third cancer was slightly increased in 1999 (12.5%) than 1995 (11.2%), which is reflected in the increased prox-imal gastrectomy in 1999 (207 cases, 3.6%). There was no significant difference between either groups regarding the regional differences.