Patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) relapse within months after completing previous therapies. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib as third- or further-line therapy in patients with short-term relapsed SCLC from ALTER1202. Patients with short-term relapsed SCLC (disease progression within 3 months after completing ≥ two lines of chemotherapy) in the anlotinib (n = 67) and placebo (n = 34) groups were analyzed. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints included overall survival, objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate, and safety. Anlotinib significantly improved median PFS/OS (4.0 vs. 0.7 months, P < 0.0001)/(7.3 vs. 4.4 months, P = 0.006) compared with placebo. The ORR was 4.5%/2.9% in the anlotinib/placebo group (P = 1.000). The DCR in the anlotinib group was higher than that in the placebo group (73.1% vs. 11.8%, P < 0.001). The most common adverse events (AEs) were hypertension (38.8%), loss of appetite (28.4%), and fatigue (22.4%) in the anlotinib group and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase elevation (20.6%) in the placebo group. No grade 5 AEs occurred. For patients with short-term relapsed SCLC, third- or further-line anlotinib treatment was associated with improved survival benefit. Further studies are warranted in this regard.