Objective To investigate the characteristics of lymph node metastasis in T 1 stage of lung cancer and the curative effects of minimally invasive surgery and open surgery .Methods Totally 120 cases of T1 stage of lung cancer were divided into two groups ,68 cases in the minimally invasive surgery group and 52 cases in the open surgery group ,the number of lymph node me‐tastasis in the patients with lung cancer in T 1 stage were studied ,the perioperative related indicators for different tumor size were compared between the two different surgical methods .Results All patients were successfully completed the operation without op‐erative death case .The two groups had no significant difference in the aspects of operation time ,intraoperative bleeding volume and number of lymph node dissection .The lymph node metastasis rates in the maximum tumor diameter ≤1 .0 ,1 .0 -3 .0 cm were 1 .3% and 9 .7% respectively .N1 ,N2 squamous cancer of the maximal tumor diameter ≤1 .0 cm had no metastasis .The periopera‐tive related clinical indicators in the maximal tumor diameter ≤1 .0 cm had significant differences between the two kinds of opera‐tion method(P<0 .05) ,the perioperative related clinical indicators in the maximal tumor diameter 1 .0-3 .0 cm had no significant differences between the two kinds of operation method .Conclusion The patients with T1 stage of lung cancer and the maximal tumor diameter ≤1 .0 cm are more suitable for the minimally invasive surgery ,but the patients with T1 stage of lung cancer and the maximal tumor diameter>1 .0 cm have little difference in minimally invasive surgery and open surgery .