Over the past 10 years, we have experienced 11 cases of early gastric cancer limited to the mucosa and submucosa, with a widespread lymph node metastasis over the perigastric node. These cases represented 3.8% of all the early gastric cancer cases treated at our hospital during this period. The average age of these patients was 49.1 years, and consisted of 7 males and 4 females. Of these 11 cases, 10 cases (90.9%) were, macroscopically, the depressed type. Histologically, 7 cases (63.6%) were poorly differentiated carcinoma. Curative resections were possible in 8 cases (72.7%). The cumulative 5-year survival rate was poorer than for other types of early gastric cancer, and amounted to 66.7% in cases that were curative, and 0% for non-curative cases.