ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristics and influencing factors of N1 in T2 stage of the 8th TNM stage of The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) (3 cm <tumor size≤5 cm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), to provide the basis for dissecting intrapulmonary lymph node more accurately during the operation.MethodsWe collected the clinical information of patients who underwent the pulmonary malignant tumor surgery in Dalian Central Hospital between October 2011 and November 2016. Through the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 68 patients were obtained, including 48 males and 20 females, aged 48–81 (63.1±7.6) years. According to the pathological results, we invesigated the characteristics and influencing factors of N1 in T2 stage non-small cell lung cancer.ResultsThe results showed that the highest positive rate of lymph node was 14.8% in the 12th group, 14.3% in the 13th group, and 13.9% in the 6th group, respectively. In the single factor analysis, it showed that male, T2b stage, poorly differentiated degree were the risk factors for intrapulmonary lymph node metastasis in T2 stage (P<0.05). But the intrapulmonary lymph nodes metastasis was no significant correlation with above factors according to the multivariate analysis.ConclusionIt is necessary to extract the intrapulmonary lymph node of T2 stage NSCLC at utmost, especially for the No.12 and No.13 high-risk areas. T2b stage with odd ratio (OR) at 3.038 and poorly differentiated degree (OR=1.945) may be the risk factors for the intrapulmonary lymph nodes metastasis of NSCLC in T2 stage. But they are not determining factors.