Objective: To study the relationship between the expression of p27Kip1 and p53, and the infiltration, metastasis and prognosis in gastric carcinoma. Methods: The expression of p27Kip1 and p53 at protein level was determined by immunohistochemical assay (two-step method) in 100 cases of gastric carcinoma. Results: Of the 100 cases, the positive rate of p27Kip1 and p53 expressions were 44% and 49%, respectively. In the group of gastric carcinomas with deep infiltration (infiltration group), lymph nodes metastasis group (metastasis group) and death-within-5-years group (death group), the expression of p27Kip1 was statistically lower (P<0.05). In the metastasis group and death group, the expression of p53 was significantly higher (P<0.05). The results of the monovariate analysis revealed that the 5-year survival rate of the high p27Kip1 expression group was 70.59%, which is higher than those of the low p27Kip1 expression group (54.55%) and the negative experession group (26%). The 5-year survival rate of the high p53 expression group was 19.23%, which was lower than those of the p53 low expression group (43.75%) and the negative group (53.19%). Cox multivariate analysis showed that p27Kip1, like p53, was an independent prognostic index. But p27Kip1 protein expression was a stronger independent survival predictor (RR=3.06) than p53 expression (RR=2.33). Conclusion: The low expression of p27Kip1 and the high expression of p53 reflected the more frequent invasion and metastasis, which resulted in the reduced survival of patients. As an independent markers of the gastric carcinoma, the expression of p27Kip1 is more useful than that of p53 in the prognosis prediction of gastric carcinoma.