Small cell lung cancer is one of the most aggressive solid tumors because of its rapid growth and early tendency to spread to distant organs. Nonetheless, it is also one of the most sensitive tumors to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which can give patients with limited disease a chance to become long-term survivors. These characteristics have made this tumor a clinical model to explore various treatment strategies, including concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy, alternant chemotherapy, high-dose chemotherapy with hematologic support, or use of whole-brain prophylactic radiotherapy. In addition, in recent years, small cell lung cancer has been used as a platform to develop some new targeted therapy agents or immunotherapeutic approaches.