Abstract: Objective To investigate clinical characteristics and pathological features of gastric cancer of different age groups.Methods 1138 cases of clinical data of patients with gastric cancer from January 2005 to January 2007 at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University were retrospectively analyzed.According to ages, patients were divided into 3 groups:A≤40 years;B＞40 years and≤70 years;C＞70 years.The whole group and the groups′demographic factors, the main symptoms, tumor location, pathological type and TNM stage were statistically analyzed and compared.Results The number of gastric cancer increased along with the age and reached a high peak in 51~70 years.Female patients predominated at the cases of 40 years or younger(P＜0.05).Patients in A group had a higher percentage off amily history of cancer(P＜0.05).Lots of patients in B and C groups liked heavier salty foods, hot foods, smoking and alcohol drinking than patients in A groups(P＜0.05).Initial symptoms in these three groups were similar(P＞0.05).Most of tumors occurred at pyloric antrum in A group(P＜0.05), gastric cardia and funduscancer increased along with the age, especially male patients.The majority of patients were the low differentiated adenocarcinoma.High and middle differentiated adenocarcinoma ratio increased along with the age.The A group had more mucinous adenocarcinoma and signet-ring cell carcinoma than the other groups(P＜0.05).The majority of patients belonged to stageⅡand Ⅲ.The A group had more stage Ⅳ patients(P＜0.05).Conclusion Gastric cancer patients of different age groups have different characteristics of the disease and pathological features.