Introduction: Effective palliative surgery is often the only option for advanced gastric cancer. Objectives: Comparing the results of gastric resection and gastrectomy with less aggressive surgical procedures in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Methods: Between 2000. and 2010. 159 patients with gastric cancer underwent surgery at the Department of Digestive Surgery, General Hospital Pozega. Patients who had had palliative surgery were identified. Results: Fifty-nine patients underwent palliative surgery which makes 37 % treated for stomach cancer. There were 39 men (66 %) and 20 (34 %) women with average age of 68, 1 years. In the majority of patients (31 or 52 %) cancer was localized in the lower third oh the stomach. Incidence of postoperative complications, mortality and survival of the two groups of patients were compared ; those who underwent palliative gastrectomy or resection (24 or 40, 7 %) with those who only underwent gastroenterostomy, gastrostomy or just exploration (35 or 59, 3 %). In the first group there were 7 (29, 2 %) patients with postoperative complications and postoperative mortality equaled 2 (8, 2 %). In the second group postoperative complications occurred in 6 (17, 1 %) patients, and postoperative mortality rate was 5 (14, 5 %). Patients who underwent resection or gastrectomy had longer average survival of 10, 8 months, compared to the patients in the second group who survived an average 5, 3 months. Conclusions: In patients with advanced gastric cancer, in a case of a good general condition, palliative resection could be the method of choice and can provide better survival apart from less radical surgery.