At the department of surgery at the university hospital in Cologne 94 patients suffering from early gastric cancer of the stomach were operated in the years between 1968 and 1983. From 1972 till 1987 the department of surgery at the university hospital Mainz has had 74 patients. Survival rates and times without recurrence were calculated dependent on the surgical treatment carried out. In both collectives the prognosis for the patients with mucosal carcinoma was good no matter which operation was carried out. In the case of submucosal infiltration the frequency of recurrence was smaller and the survival rates significantly higher in those patients who subjected to a cancer operation than in those on whom only a resection of two third of the stomach was performed. The results indicate a radical approach in the treatment of early gastric cancer. At least in the case of submucosal carcinoma a dissection of the N2 lymph nodes is advisable.