Abstract Background Gastric cancer (GC) treatment is determined by accurate tumor staging. The value of tumor deposit (TD) in prognostic prediction staging system is not yet determined. Methods We retrospectively analyzed clinical information on GC patients who underwent gastrectomy at the Department of General Surgery of the Chinese PLA General Hospital from July 2014 to June 2016. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to reduce the possibility of selection bias according to the presence of TD. Results Of the 1034 GC patients, 240 (23.21%) presented with TD, which was associated with younger age and larger tumor size (all P