Background In early-stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients, little is known about how to measure patient participation in Shared-Decision Making (SDM). We examined the psychometric properties and clinical acceptability of the Decision Self-Efficacy scale (DSE) in a cohort of patients undergoing to Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) or Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) to capture patient involvement in treatment decisions. Methods In the context of a prospective longitudinal study (Life after Lung Cancer-LiLAC) involving 244 patients with early-stage NSCLC, 158 (64.7%) patients completed the DSE either on paper or electronically online prior to treatment with SABR or VATS pulmonary resection. DSE psychometric properties were examined using: principal components analysis of item properties and internal structure, and internal construct validity; we also performed a sensitivity analysis according to Karnofsky Performance Status, gender, age and treatment received (VATS or SABR) difference. Results Two subscales within the DSE were identified: the main factor accounting for almost 72% of the variance related to overcoming barriers to decision making (seven items) and a second factor explaining an additional 9.1% of the variance was related to information seeking processes (four items). We calculated a value of 0.96 for Cronbach’s alpha for the total DSE score, 0.94 for Factor 1 and 0.95 for Factor 2. DSE scores did not differ by gender ( p =0.37), between the two treatment groups (p=0.09) and between younger and older patients ( p =0.4). However, patients with a Karnofsky performance score (PS) >1 have a DSE mean of 73.8 (SD 26) compared to patients with a PS 0-1 who have a DSE mean of 85.8 (SD 20.3 p =0.002). Conclusion Findings provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the DSE questionnaire in this population. However, future studies are warranted to identify the most appropriate SDM tool for clinical practice in the lung cancer treatment field.