Abstract: Objective To investigate the efficacy and toxicity of thalidomide plus irinotecan and cisplatin treatment for recurrent small cell lung cancer. Methods 62 patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer in the same period were randomly divided into observation group and control group according to the principle of minimum distribution imbalance index. The observation group patients were treated with thalidomide plus irinotecan and cisplatin chemotherapy, and the control group patients were treated  with irinotecan and cisplatin chemotherapy. The efficacy and toxicity of the two groups were compared. Results The overall response rate in the group observation was 86.7% compared with 63.3% in the control group, and the difference has statistical significance (χ² =8.52，P<0.05). The major toxicities were hematologic toxicity and gastrointestinal symptoms, and the side effects was not statistically significant (χ²=0.18，P＞0.05). Conclusion The treatment of recurrent small cell lung cancer with irinotecan and cisplatin in combination with thalidomide has high efficiency, and the toxicity can be tolerated.

Key words: Lung neoplasms, Neoplasm recurrence, Drug therapy, combination