Methylation of GATA4 was found in human gastric mucosa samples, including normal gastric biopsies, gastric dysplasia (low-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia) and paired sporadic gastric carcinomas (SGC) as well as the adjacent non-neoplastic gastric tissues.GATA4 methylation was frequently observed in SGCs (53.8 %) by MSP. This evidence concerns the gene GATA4 and gastric carcinoma.