In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that the p53 mutant staining pattern of patients with advanced-stage gastric cancer demonstrated a poor overall survival and a high distant metastasis rate compared with the wild-type pattern; this suggests that a p53 mutant status identified using IHC in the tissues of patients with gastric cancer following radical resection is a key predictor of prognosis or recurrence. The gene discussed is TP53; the disease is gastric cancer.