The recent literatures has few reports of the state of the art and latest results in the treatment of gastric cancer, although such information is necessary for conducting new clinical trials and for obtaining informed consent from patients. In the panel discussions at the 71st Gastric Cancer Congress of Japan (held in Tokyo, June 1999), 18 representative institutions and hospitals in Japan reported their latest results for the surgical treatment of gastric cancer, indicating the state of the art in the treatment of gastric cancer. Here we report a summary of these sessions.