We analyzed the long-term survivors in a group of 255 patients with newly diagnosed small cell carcinoma of the lung (SCCL) between January 1978 and July 1983. Long-term survivors were defined as those patients free of cancer 2 years after initiation of therapy. Only 6 patients (2.5%) were free of disease at this time. Two patients relapsed at 29 and 40 months from the start of chemotherapy. Both patients were retreated with chemotherapy, and one of them achieved a complete response. Despite the increase in median survival in SCCL with chemotherapy over the past 10 years, long-term prognosis remains very poor employing standard treatments.