Background: gastric cancer is common in Mexico. Evaluation of treatment strategies is greatly important in early gastric cancer. National institutions rarely report their outcomes, limiting feedback and policy improvements. Methods: single-center retrospective review of patients with histologically confirmed localized gastric cancer diagnosed from Jan 2005 to Dec 2017. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were estimated by Kaplan-Meier curves and compared with log-rank rest. A p value < 0.05 was significant. Results: we included 78 cases, median age 63 years, 52.6% men. Surgery was the initial treatment in 46 patients (59%) and 87% achieved R0 resection. Adjuvant treatment was administered to 63% of patients. 29 patients (37.2%) started perioperative chemotherapy with 86.2% of them being resected, and 75.9% having R0 resection. 13 patients (44.8%) also received postoperative chemotherapy. Better performance status (p=0.036) and lower albumin levels (p=0.039) were found in patients with initial surgery vs those with perioperative chemotherapy. At the time of surgery, most patients had stage III disease in both groups but 5 patients had M1 disease despite negative initial laparoscopy in the chemotherapy group and 5 patients did not require aduvant tx given early stage in the surgery first group. Median OS and RFS are reported in table. Conclusions: Most patients in our center undergo initial surgery. We report a differential survival according to initial treatment. More advanced disease in chemotherapy first group may explain differences. Given non-random assignment, we could not show survival benefit of chemotherapy treated patients.