Objective To study the relationship between early gastric cancer and MiB-1 expression. Methods Resected early gastric cancer from 99 cases were studied by immunohistochemical method. Results MiB-1 proliferation index (MiB-1 PI) was related to patient ’s age, tumor size, location and depth of invasion. MiB-1 PI was higher in differentiated adenocarcinomas than in undifferentiated adenocarcinomas(P＜0.01). Cancers with lymphatic vessel invasion or lymph node metastasis had higher MiB-1 PI (P＜0.05). The postoperative survival was related to MiB-1 proliferation grade (MiB-1 PG), being higher in MiB-1 PG 1,2 grade than that in MiB-1 PG 3,4 grade. Conclusion Even in the early stage of gastric cancer, tumor proliferation activity was related to patients’ prognosis.