Palliative radiotherapy for small cell lung cancer refers to extensive tumor invasion and metastasis, advanced clinical stage, radiotherapy is adopted to alleviate clinical symptoms, reduce pain and improve quality of life. Palliative radiotherapy for small cell lung cancer usually refers to small cell lung cancer that cannot be cured and needs to be treated with radiation therapy. As small cell lung cancer is sensitive to radiotherapy, radiation can effectively kill cancer cells and control patients’ condition, which is conducive to prolonging patients’ survival time and improving their quality of life. However, patients with combined lung function damage, obstructive pulmonary atelectasis and huge size of lung tumors need to choose radiotherapy after several cycles of chemotherapy and obvious shrinkage of tumors. It is suggested that patients need to seek timely medical treatment for small cell lung cancer, and they can choose appropriate palliative radiotherapy treatment under the guidance of doctors.