Podcast: Managing the Side Effects of Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Posted on November 2, 2026
Ann Steagall, RN, BSN, SVP Patient Services and Health Care Delivery
managing sclc side effects

What side effects should you expect from small cell lung cancer treatment—and when should you call your care team? In this episode, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) survivor Vickie Rose shares her journey through chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, and tarlatamab, and the practical, hard-won strategies she uses to keep eating, stay active, and feel well on treatment.

Clinical pharmacist Mya Tran, PharmD, BCOP, Indiana University (IU) Health Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, joins Vickie and hosts Ann Steagall and Misty Shields, MD, to explain how side effects differ across chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and bispecific T-cell engagers, why reporting side effects early can help you stay on treatment, and her simple “traffic light” approach for knowing when to wait, when to call your care team, and when to head to the ER.
 

 

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Featured Guests:

Vickie Rose, small cell lung cancer survivor

Vickie Rose was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2022 after more than a year of unexplained pain in her left shoulder and arm. Her treatment has included chemotherapy with concurrent radiation, Gamma Knife radiosurgery for brain metastases, chemo-immunotherapy after a recurrence in 2024, and, since early 2025, tarlatamab—a treatment she requested after learning about it through the LUNGevity community. She teaches paddleboarding, gardens, and volunteers in her community while continuing her treatment.

It begins and ends with you, and you have to work with your doctors, with your team. You have to communicate.

-Vickie Rose, small cell lung cancer survivor

Mya Tran, PharmD, BCOP, Indiana University Health Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Tran is a precision genomics oncology clinical pharmacist specializing in molecular profiling and targeted therapy optimization for solid tumors, particularly lung cancer. In her work with patients, Dr. Tran focuses on education and ongoing support to help people not only get the most benefit from their therapy, but also live well while on treatment. 

If the patient talks to me more openly about side effects, I feel much more comfortable about continuing a treatment, because I can rely on the patient, the family, and the caregiver to tell me when things are not safe.

-Dr. Mya Tran, clinical oncology pharmacist

 

Key Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • Vickie’s survivor story: from months of unexplained pain to a small cell diagnosis, and the side effects she’s managed along the way, from nausea and neuropathy to hair loss and hearing loss
  • What’s typical and what’s unusual: Dr. Shields on the side effects of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and tarlatamab, the newest small cell treatment, first approved in 2024
  • Managing side effects of combined treatments: why pairing drugs can improve results, and why it makes it harder to tell which treatment is causing which side effect
  • The consent process and the “traffic light” approach: how care teams prepare patients for side effects, and Dr. Tran’s green, yellow, and red system for knowing when to wait, when to call, and when to go to the ER
  • Taste changes and easy nutrition: tips for eating well when food tastes like cardboard
  • Speaking up to stay on treatment: why reporting side effects early, and asking questions the way Vickie does, often leads to adjustments rather than stopping therapy
  • The role of care partners: helping track food, temperature, and changes in behavior, and making outpatient tarlatamab possible
  • Reasons for hope: promising research on the way, new options at every stage, and lung cancer screening for small cell

 

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