Abstract Background The efficacy of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in treating patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has not been clear, and recent randomized studies have demonstrated conflicting results from previously published findings. The purpose of this study was to reevaluate the efficacy of PCI in patients with SCLC and to assess factors associated with its efficacy. Methods We conducted a quantitative meta-analysis to explore the efficacy of PCI in patients with SCLC. A literature search was performed using EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. We pooled the data and compared overall survival (OS) and brain metastasis (BM) between patients treated with PCI (PCI group) and patients without PCI treatment (observation group). Results Of the 1074 studies identified in our analysis, we selected seven studies including 2114 patients for the current meta-analysis. Our results showed that the PCI group showed decreased BM (HR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.38–0.55, P
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