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Gastric carcinoma and lymphoma are leading causes of cancer mortality throughout the world. This disease is the end result of a long multifactorial process involving a large number of environmental and genetic factors. As a genetic disease, individual variation in cancer risk has been associated with specific alleles of different genes (polymorphisms) in which the modulatory mechanisms of carcinogenesis and the risk of its progression are found. Research at the molecular level has focused on the detection of genetic alterations predisposing to the development and progression of gastric cancer. These studies have been conducted in various populations in which the disease recurs and have been initially based on individual selection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes. Important molecular markers have been described and proposed as prognostic markers in this type of patients which has allowed for advances in the understanding of the neoplastic process. This review intends to provide an up to date look at recent studies on gene polymorphisms involved in immunogenic processes, DNA repair mechanisms, responses to detoxification of carcinogenic compounds, mechanisms of tumor suppression and apoptosis which are all processes involved in the development of gastric cancer. Data are also reported from molecular markers associated with this disease from Colombian and foreign genomes already stored in the database of the 1000 Genomes Project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]