Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of early enteral nutrition or parenteral nutrition on immune function and nutritional status in patients after radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Methods A total of 120 patients with gastric cancer treated in our hospital from January 2013 to December 2015 were selected and divided into experimental group and control group according to random number table method. The control group was treated with parenteral nutrition， and the experimental group was given early enteral nutrition support. The immune function and nutritional status of the two groups were compared. Results On the first day after operation， the activity of the immune cells in the two groups was weaker than that before operation （P＜0.05），including CD3+， CD4+， CD4+／CD8+ and NK. On the seventh day after operation， the activity of the immune cells in the experimental group was similar to the preoperative level （P＞0.05）. The activity of the immune cells in control group was significantly lower than those of the preoperative level and the experimental group （P＜0.05）. The fever time， recovery time of intestinal function， exhaust time and hospitalization time in the experimental group were significantly shorter than those of the control group （P＜0.05）. On the first day after operation， the contents of albumin and prealbumin in two groups were（25.2±5.8）g／L, （136.7±18.8）g／L and （25.5±6.0）g／L, （134.3±17.7）g／L， which were lower than those of two groups before operation. On the seventh day after operation， the contents of prealbumin and albumin in experimental group were （172.5±22.8） g／L and （37.6±7.7） g／L， which were significantly higher than those of control group （P＜0.05）. The complication rate of the experimental group was 11.7％， which was significantly lower than that of control group （28.3％），and the difference was statistically significant（P＜0.05）. Conclusion Early enteral nutrition therapy can effectively improve the nutritional status and immune function of patients with gastric cancer. It is worth to be popularized in clinical use.