 This study compared the efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy, SBRT, and surgery for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC. The meta-analysis found that SBRT had inferior overall survival, disease-free survival, local control survival, regional control survival, local regional control survival, and distant control survival compared to surgery. However, the study suggests that SBRT has potential as an alternative treatment for patients with stage 1 to 2 NSCLC. This article was authored by Xiao Junyu, WAN Reng Dai, and Yong Shu.