Background: Medical co-morbidities in patients with lung cancer frequently impact a treatment decision out of fear of doing harm without a benefit. A prospective study looking at racial disparity factors associated with surgery decisions in early lung cancer identified > 2 co-morbidities with an Odds Ratio (OR) of 0.04 of going to surgery for African Americans (AA) patients, yet a 10-fold higher likelihood of Caucasians (C) going to surgery with an OR 0.45. (Cykert et al JAMA 2010: 303: 2368). Methods: 386 out of the original437 patients with early stage lung cancer and no absolute contraindications to surgery were evaluated at multiple institutions for relative co-morbidities and with an initial Short Form 12 (SF-12) to assess physical functional status at enrollment and one year after enrollment. One year mortality and physical functional status was assessed. Results: 66% of C underwent surgery compared to 55% of AA (p = .048). One year mortality was not different between the AA (15%) and C (15.4%) populations (p=0.9); however not powered for a survival difference between surgery and no surgery. One year mortality in the overall surgical group was 10.8% compared to 22.8% in the non-surgical group; OR 0.50 (p<0.001). Patients with > 2 co-morbidities at diagnosis had a 27.5% one year mortality compared to 13.5% with < 2 co-morbidities; OR 1.7 (p=0.01). Combined analysis of co-morbidities and surgery revealed those with < 2 co-morbidities having surgery experienced a 10% one year mortality and those with > 2 co-morbidities 19%; without surgery one year mortality was 20% and 31% respectively. Despite > 2 co-morbidities, there was a 12% absolute mortality reduction with surgery. Regression analysis controlling for age and co-morbidities identified no physical functioning decline with surgery compared to the non-surgical group. Conclusions: One year mortality was doubled in patients with early lung cancer who declined surgery compared to those treated with surgery. There was no increased physical functioning decline in patients treated with surgery compared to no surgery. Treatment decisions in early lung cancer should be based on the survival benefit and not a perceived concern of physical functioning decline.