This study aims to investigate the clinical efficacy of systemic chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy for advanced gastric cancer.A total of 194 advanced gastric cancer patients who were treated from 2006 to 2016 were included in this study. These patients were divided into 2 groups: chemotherapy group (n = 92) and combined chemoradiotherapy group (n = 102). The clinical efficacy of these 2 groups was compared and analyzed to explore the advantageous population and duration of radiotherapy.The remission rates in the chemotherapy group and combined chemoradiotherapy group were 73.5% and 90.6%, respectively, and median survival time was 6.7 versus 10.6 months. Furthermore, the 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year survival rates were 62% versus 83.3%, 22.8% versus 38.2%, and 7.6% versus 13.7%, respectively. All the differences were statistically significant (P < .05). In patients with distant lymph node metastasis, local advanced cancer and organ metastasis, who underwent chemotherapy + radiotherapy, the median survival time was 12.6, 11.1, and 9.8 months, respectively; and the differences were statistically significant compared with the chemotherapy group (P < .05). The median survival time in patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy and sequential chemoradiotherapy was 11 and 9.5 months, respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant (P > .05).Combined chemoradiotherapy significantly improved the clinical remission rate, median survival time, and the 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year survival rates in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Furthermore, the survival rate of patients with simple distant lymph node metastasis was better. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy did not significantly improve survival rate compared with sequential chemoradiotherapy.