As the leading cause of cancer-related death among human beings, lung cancer seriously threats peoples' health all over the world. Cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) is a new kind of adaptive immune cells characterized by its dramatic proliferation ability and cytotoxicity, non-major histocompatibility antigens (MHC) restriction and low side effects, which draw an increasing attention in recent years. The review is to introduce the basic features and mechanism of CIK cells briefly and summarize the researches of CIK cells used in the clinical therapy for lung cancer. Finally, we discuss several problems that should be addressed before CIK cells are widely applied to clinical patients.