Point mutations at codon 12 of the c-Ki-ras gene were investigated in 103 biopsy tissues from 38 patients with gastric adenoma. DNA from minute specimens of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue was amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method was used to detect mutations of the c-Ki-ras gene. Mutations were detected in 4 of the 38 gastric adenomas (10.5%), but were not detected in intestinal metaplasias and gastric adenocarcinomas. Of the 4 mutation-positive gastric adenomas, the GGT sequence in codon 12 changed to GAT in 2 cases, to GTT in 1 case and to TGT in 1 case. We classified gastric adenomas into three degrees of atypia; mutations were detected only in biopsy tissues with moderate and severe atypia but were not detected in biopsy tissues with mild atypia. When different biopsy tissues from a mutation-positive gastric adenoma were examined, the mutation was not always detected in every tissue sample examined. This suggests that mutations are not homogeneously distributed, even in the same adenoma. It is possible to follow up the mutation of biopsy materials of gastric adenoma by this method.