Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy between stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and surgical treatment for stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods Clinical data of 120 patients with early-stage NSCLC who underwent SBRT or surgical treatment in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from 2012 to 2015 were retrospectively analyzed.Propensity score matching was carried out between two groups.Sixty eligible patients were enrolled in each group.In the SBRT group,the 80％ isodose line covered 95％ of the planning target volume,and the 100％ isodose line covered 100％ of the internal gross tumor volume.The fractional dose was 5-15 Gy and the median biologically equivalent dose was 100 Gy (range:57.6-150.0 Gy).In the operation group,32 patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy and 9 patients underwent wedge resection or segmentectomy.Results All patients successfully completed corresponding treatment and were followed up.The median follow-up was 32.3 months (range:8.6-68.4 months).In the operation group,3 patients died from infection within postoperative 90 d,whereas no case died in the SBRT group (P=0.079).In the SBRT group,3 patients died of other factors besides tumor (cerebral infarction,heart disease,etc.) during follow-up.Local-regional recurrence occurred in 12 patients including 5 cases in the operation group and 7 in the SBRT group (P=0.543).In the operation group,11 patients experienced distant metastases with a median disease-free survival (DFS) of 33.5 months.In the SBRT group,6 patients had distant metastases and the median DFS was 38.4 months (P=0.835,P=0.178).In the SBRT group,the 1-and 3-year overall survival rates were 93％ and 83％,and 95％ and 83％ in the operation group (P=0.993).Conclusions The 1-and 3-year overall survival rates and local control rate do not significantly differ between SBRT and operation for patients with early-stage NSCLC.