Objective：To evaluate the advantages of using laparoscopic exploration in diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal advanced or undetermined tumors.
Methods：A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of cases using laparoscopic exploration (53 cases, group A) or exploratory laparotomy (51 cases, group B) in gastrointestinal advanced or undetermined tumors was undertaken. The mortality, rate of complications and length of hospital stay between the two groups were compared.
Results：The mortality of group A was 0, the rate of complications was 15.09%. The mortality of group B was 11.76%,  the rate of complications was 43.14%. Both of them was statistically different（P＜0.05）. The hospital stay of group A was（7.25±1.65）d and group B was （18.72±4.94）d （P＜0.01）.
Conclusions：Using laparoscopic exploration in gastrointestinal advanced or undetermined tumors has obvious advantages. It could be used to confirm diagnosis and perform proper operations with a minimal invasion,and thus reduce the risk of operations, the rate of complications and mortality rate and shorten hospital stay.