Between January 1, 1983, and December 31, 1988, operations were performed on 112 patients with adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia. Resection of the primary tumor was performed in 93 patients. For these 93 patients, follow-up until July 1, 1989, averaged 24 months, during which time 59 patients died. Positive resection margins carried a greater risk for the development of a local recurrence but did not correlate with survival. The cumulative overall 5-year actuarial recurrence rate was 69%. The cumulative 5-year recurrence rate for metastases was 64% and for locoregional recurrence it was 36%. The overall 5-year survival rate was 24%. Differences in survival were observed between patients with carcinomas of the various subgroups of the 1987 TNM classification system (T1-T2 versus T3-T4, N0 versus N1-N2, M0 versus M1, Stages I-II versus Stages III-IV, Grades 1-2 versus Grades 3-4). In particular, lymph node status as correlated with histopathologic grade showed remarkable differences in survival: patients with no positive lymph nodes in the resection specimen and a Grade 1 or 2 tumor had a significantly better 5-year survival rate (53%) than the other subgroups (N0/Grades 3-4: 21%; N1-N2/Grades 1-2: 12%; N1-N2/Grades 3-4: 14%).