Purpose : To investigate the causes of gastric wall shortening in ealy gastric cancer, upper gastrointestinalstudy was correlated with pathologic findings. Materials and Methods : We evaluated 41 cases (m:F=1.7:1, averageage=49) of early gastric cancer, retrospectively. The gastric wall shortening were classified as Grade I;none,Grade II;intermediate, and Grade III; prominent. Pathologic findings such as size of lesions, depth of tumorinvasion, degree of the submucosal fibrosis, degree of thickness of the submucosa and muscularis propria, andmorphologic patterns of lesions including conversing mucosal folds were correlated with the degree of gastric wallshortening on upper gastrointestinal series. Results : Submucosal fibrosis was present in 4 cases in Grade I(n=21), 4 cases in Grade II (n=6) and 8 cases in Grade III (n=10), Positive conversing mucosal folds were seen in 5cases in Grade I (n=17), 0 case in Grade II (n=2) and 9 cases in Grade III (n=9), Gastric wall shortening wassignificantly associated with submucosal fibrosis and conversing mucosal folds of early gastric cancer. (p=.0001and p=.002, respectively) Conclusion : Upper gastrointestinal finding of gastric wall protrusion in patients withearly gastric cancer should not misinterprete as advanced gastric cancer sine the finding could be a result ofsubmucosal fibrosis.