Using a silver staining technique, nucleolar organizer region-associated proteins (AgNORs) have been studied in paraffin sections of 15 benign gastric ulcers, seven early gastric cancers, 13 gastric adenocarcinomas and 10 control cases. A significant difference in the mean number of AgNORs per nucleus was found when control and benign groups were compared with the malignant group. However, there was an overlap between each category. Further studies are warranted to determine if this may be of value in differentiating regenerative epithelium from early malignancy.