Seventy-five patients with gastric carcinoma underwent preoperative staging with computed tomography (CT). In 14 patients, CT failed to demonstrate lymphadenopathy despite the presence of malignant lymph nodes at surgery. In 13 patients, CT demonstrated enlarged nodes, but no malignant involvement was found at surgery. Although spread to the pancreas was correctly predicted in three patients with lack of fat plane between tumor and pancreas, five patients lacking a fat plane had no invasion, whereas eight patients with an intact fat plane had invasion. Thirty-five patients (47%) were incorrectly staged with CT:23 (31%) were understaged and 12 (16%) were overstaged. CT does not accurately display the true extent of disease in patients with gastric carcinoma and therefore should not be used routinely for staging.