SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Hematology
The Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treating Cancer Related Anemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Quan-yao Li 1
Zi-yu Zhang 2
Wen-xiao Yang 2
Hui Liu 1
Xi Li 1
Wen-chao Qiu 1
Zhao-wei Guo 1
Jun Shi 1
1. Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China
2. Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Abstract
Objective: The aim is to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the treatment of cancer related anemia (CRA), and to provide higher quality evidence-based medical evidence for the treatment of CRA with TCM. Methods: Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine Disc (CBM) and WanFang were searched for the literature on TCM treatment of CRA included in the databases from the establishment of the databases to December 2025. Meta-analysis was performed using ReVman5.3 software. Results: 6,201 relevant literatures were retrieved. According to inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 58 literatures were included, with a total of 4,308 patients, including 2,157 patients in the treatment group and 2,151 patients in the control group. The treatment group was better than the control group in improving hemoglobin level, clinical efficacy, KPS score, TCM syndrome efficacy, TCM Syndrome Score, immune function and red blood cell count, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). By drawing a funnel figure of hemoglobin levels, it was found that the left and right sides of the funnel figure were basically symmetrical, indicating that the publication bias of this study was low. It can be considered that TCM treatment can significantly improve hemoglobin and improve the anemia of patients. Conclusion: TCM can significantly improve CRA, enhance TCM syndrome and immune function, and improve patients' quality of life.
Summary
Keywords
Cancer related anemia, Chinese herbal, Hemoglobin, meta analysis, Quality of Life
Received
04 November 2025
Accepted
31 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Li, Zhang, Yang, Liu, Li, Qiu, Guo and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jun Shi
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.