Objective: To summarize the clinicopathologic features and surgical procedure of video-assisted thoracic surgery to remove the subcentimeter nodules (≤1 cm) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: From 2009 to 2015, 78 patients with lung subcentimeter nodules, according to appearance on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), were classified into three groups: pure ground-glass opacity (GGO) lesion group (n=21); mixed GGO lesion group (n=35); and solid GGO group (n=22). All patients were obtained video-assisted thoracic surgery, and postoperation pathological features showed the results of non-small cell lung cancer (including adenocarcinoma in situ, micro-invasive carcinoma and invasive carcinoma), summarizing the clinicopathological features. Results: In pure GGO group and mixed GGO group, there was no lymph node metastases, but 4 cases found in solid GGO group, in which 2 were mediastinal lymph node metastases. The 5-year overall survival rates were 100% in pure GGO group, 99% in mixed GGO group, and 90% in solid GGO group. Conclusion: Subcentimeter lung cancers with a GGO component on HRCT (pure to mixed) can be considered “early” lung cancers. In these cases, limited resection may be warranted to achieve a cure because they had no lymph node metastasis. In contrast, lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node metastases dissection should still be considered as the standard operation for solid GGO tumors.