Although surgical resection remains the optimal treatment for early-stage NSCLC, up to 50% of patients with stage I and II relapse and die within 5 years after curative resection. Therefore prognostic markers are important as these patients might benefit from adjuvant therapy. The goal of this study was to evaluate established PET quantification metrics including: maximal standard uptake volume (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) as prognostic markers for early recurrence and overall survival in resected early stage lung cancer. Between January 2003 and December 2010 182 surgically resected patients with stage I-II NSCLC who underwent 18 F FDG PET/CT less than one month prior to surgery have been evaluated. All patients had at least 5 years of follow-up. Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine the association between variables and survival respectively time to recurrence. For the multivariate analysis the following variables have been included: tumor size on CT, age tumor stage, histology, SUVmax, TLG (for TLG42% (threshold at 42% SUVmax) and TLG2.5 (cut-off at SUV 2.5) and MTV42% and MTV2.5). To identify high-risk patients we used survival trees. 133 patients were included, 71 with adeno carcinoma, 62 with squamous cell carcinoma. TLG2.5 and MTV2.5 values have been a significant prognostic factor for recurrence (P<0.0001). Patients with a MTV2.5 above 42 cm3 had a mean recurrence time of 0.8±0.9 years, while patients with MTV2.5 ≤ 42 cm3 recurred within 2.8±1.3 years. Using the survival tree models TLG42% has been the first choice variable for discriminating high risk patients for DOD (dead of disease) independent from histological type, whereas MTV2.5 has been the first choice for DOD in adeno carcinoma patients. TLG and MTV may be useful prognostic variables in stage I-II NSCLC depending on the tumor type. Using a cut-off at 42 cm3 for early stage adenocarcinoma patients a high risk of recurrence within one year might be identified and adjuvant therapy following surgical resection could improve outcome for those patients.