In our department, curative operations were performed for 32 patients with advanced gastric cancer from April 1989 to August 1990. Preoperative intra-arterial injection therapy with etoposide (100 mg), pirarubicin (20 mg) and cisplatin (20 mg) was given 18 patients. Recurrence and survival rate were investigated. The survival rate of patients with preoperative intra-arterial injection therapy 45 months after operation was 59.2%, while that of patients without preoperative intra-arterial injection therapy was 75.8%. There were no significant differences between these two groups. Three lymph node recurrences were seen in patients with preoperative intra-arterial injection therapy (recurrence rate, 16.7%). Four recurrences were observed in patients without preoperative injection therapy (peritoneal dissemination 2, liver 1, local 1; recurrence rate, 28.6%). We earlier reported that preoperative intra-arterial cisplatin (40 or 60 mg) injection therapy may reduce the incidence of lymph node recurrence and liver metastasis but may not be effective to prevent postoperative peritoneal recurrence, while no peritoneal dissemination was observed in patients with preoperative intra-arterial EAP I injection therapy. Thus, it was concluded that further study of combination and dose of anti-cancer drug may improve effectiveness of preoperative intra-arterial injection therapy for gastric cancer.