Objective To investigate the characteristics of tongue pictures of gastric cancer patients.Methods The observation group consisted of 114 gastric cancer patients who didn’t accept any relevant treatment

while the control groups consisted of 80 healthy persons

75 common gastric ulcer patients

32 atrophic gastritis patients

and 122 simple superficial gastritis patients.Their tongue pictures were inspected according to traditional Chinese inspection diagnostics and recorded in ICC documents using a digital camera.Results The incidence rate of red or deep-red tongue was 49.12% in the observation group

compared with the healthy group

the difference was significant（P<0.05）

but there was no significant difference in comparing with the control groups（P>0.05）.The incidence rate of purple tongue and swollen tongue was 21.93% and 22.80% respectively in the cancer patients

showing significant difference when compared with the control groups（P<0.05）.The incidence rate of pale tongue was 23.68% in the cancer patients

showing no significant difference compared with the atrophic gastritis group（P>0.05）

however

there was statistical difference in the comparison with the other control groups（P<0.05）.The tongue coating in the observation group was mainly of greasy coating

and the incidence rate of white greasy coating and white thick greasy coating was 21.93% and 26.32% respectively.The incidence of white greasy coating of the observation group showed significant difference compared with that of the healthy group（P<0.05）

although there was no significant difference compared with the other control groups（P>0.05）.The incidence rate of tongue periphery having less coating or no coating was 40.35% in the observation group

and there was significant difference compared with all control groups（P<0.05）.Conclusion The tongue and tongue coating of the gastric cancer patients demonstrate regular features and patterns

which have important reference value for the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer.