Background: Metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma is an incurable condition. Despite the recently reported benefits of chemotherapies, the prognosis of advanced gastric cancer remains poor. The role of surgical resection is still debatable. Therefore, we investigated the efficacy of gastrectomy plus chemotherapy for stage IV gastric cancer. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of gastrectomy plus chemotherapy for treating stage IV gastric cancer. Among the 753 patients with gastric cancer treated with gastrectomy at our institute between 2003 and 2010, a total of 70 patients classified into stage IV and underwent gastrectomy with perioperative chemotherapy were included in this study. In the analysis, particular attention was paid to the prognostic factors of age, gender, tissue type, metastatic site, pre or postoperative chemotherapy, single agent or combination chemotherapy and the reason for gastrectomy (palliative surgery due to stenosis, bleeding or perforation and reduction surgery). The survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan Meier method and a statistical analysis was performed using the log-rank test. Survival was calculated from the beginning of the treatment until the last follow-up or death from any cause. Results: The median age was 65 years old. Peritoneal, lymph node and liver metastasis were 28, 23, and 13 patients respectively. Fifty-three patients had diffuse type. Gastrectomy followed by chemotherapy and chemotherapy were 53 patients. Single agent chemotherapy were 42 and combination were 28 patients. Thirty-one patients were underwent palliative surgery and 39 patients were reduction surgery. One-year survival rate of all patients was 43% and the median survival time was 19.9 months. In the statistical analysis, only reduction surgery plus chemotherapy demonstrated significant survival benefit. The median survival time was significantly greater in patients undergoing reduction gastrectomy group than in those undergoing palliative gastrectomy (25.3 versus 9.8 months; p=0.005). Conclusions: Long-term survival for patients with stage IV gastric cancer who are managed with reduction surgery and chemotherapy is achievable. Further study with a larger number of patients is warranted.