Carcinoma of the stomach is one of the most prevaleni maliganancies in Korea and the prognosis is usually poor. However, the prognosis for the early gastric cancer (EGC) has been reported excellent and this is why emphasis is put on the early diagnosis and treatment of this grave problem. This study analyzes the incidence, morphological clas.ification, location of the lesion, size of the lesion, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, diagnotic accuracy of double contrast X-ray and endoscopy. histopathologic claesification and clinical sym,ptoms of 45 cases of EGC operated on from 1983 to 1990 at Maryknoll Hospital. The incidence of EGC was 5. 6% of all stomach cancer diagnosed during the same period and 11.1% to the resected cases. Out of 45 cases of early gastric cancer, 29 cases were male, 16 cases female, the ratio of male to female was 1.8: 1, and the mean age was 52.6 years old. The most common types of early gastric cancer were IIc type (26.7%), and its combined type (37.3%). The common sites were antrum (53.3%) and lesser curvature (33.3%). 25 cases (55. 5%) were between 1-2 cm in size and less than 3 cm was found in 41 cases (91.1%). Of the 9 cases with mucosal lesion, none had lymph node metastasis. But, 5 (13.9%) out of 36 cases with submucosal invasion showed lymph node metastasia The depth of invasion was related to the incidence of lymph node metastasis (P,0.05). But the size of the losion was not related. The diagnostic accuracy of EGC for endoscopy was 66.7%, and for double contrast X-ray it was 35.6%. The most common type of EGC was tubular type of adenocarcinoma. Common complaints were epigastric discomfort and pain (62. 2%), weight loss (17. 8%), and epigas' tric fullness(8. 9%). And the duration of symptoms lasted within 1 year (77.8%).