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Endocrine cells are often found in human gastric carcinoma and may be recognized by the immunoreactivity of their chromogranin A, peptides and biogenic amines content. Anti-chromogranin A was used to investigate the morphology of endocrine cells using light and electron microscope immunohistochemical techniques. The hormone content of endocrine cells was examined in both tumour tissue and tumour-adjacent mucosa. It was found that the endocrine cells in tumour tissue were malignant, often had amphocrine differentiation and did not resemble a normal cell type. The hormone content of endocrine cells in tumour tissue seldom corresponded to the hormonal content of endocrine cells in tumour-adjacent mucosa. In intestinal-type carcinoma and in some parts of diffuse-type gastric carcinomas, endocrine cell hyperplasia and an alteration of the differentiation in the tumour-adjacent mucosa were discovered. The distribution of endocrine cells in the tumour tissue was different in both types of gastric carcinoma. The results reported here suggest that endocrine cell differentiation of malignant endocrine cells in human gastric carcinoma develops in a different way from that of endocrine cells in tumour-adjacent mucosa, and as a result, diverse hormonal products may appear in tumour tissue.