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Introduction: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has a poor prognosis and accounts for about 15% of all lung cancer cases. This study was planned to investigate the prognostic value of skeletal muscle radiodensity (SMD) and psoas muscle index (PMI) in patients with SCLC. Methods: The archive records of 253 patients with SCLC were retrospectively analyzed and 106 of them were included in the study. The overall survival (OS) and body mass index of the patients were calculated. The images of computed tomography (CT) at the time of diagnosis were retrieved for analysis. The cross-sectional area and the mean radiodensity of the psoas muscle at the third lumbar vertebral level on CT scan were measured for assessing SMD and PMI. Results: While fifty-seven of 106 patients had an extensive disease, 49 patients were considered as the limited stage. SMD was significantly lower in patients with extensive disease. While OS was significantly different for low and high SMD groups, no difference was observed between them according to PMI categories. The median OS was 8 and 12 months in low and high SMD groups, respectively. In multivariate analysis, SMD remained a significant prognostic factor in terms of stage and age at diagnosis. Conclusion:In the present study, it was found that SMD was an independent risk factor for OS, but PMI was not. The combined use of demographic and essential clinical information and SMD can enable to help physicians and patients to predict survival and thereby enhance medical decision making for newly diagnosed SCLC patients.