# The effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating cancer related anemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

## TL;DR

This study reviews and analyzes the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating cancer-related anemia, finding it improves hemoglobin levels and quality of life.

## Contribution

A systematic review and meta-analysis providing high-quality evidence for TCM's efficacy in treating cancer-related anemia.

## Key findings

- TCM treatment improved hemoglobin levels, clinical efficacy, and immune function in cancer-related anemia patients.
- The funnel plot indicated low publication bias, suggesting reliable results.
- TCM enhanced TCM syndrome efficacy and quality of life for patients with cancer-related anemia.

## Abstract

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.

Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine Disk (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.

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.

Traditional Chinese Medicine can significantly improve CRA, enhance TCM syndrome and immune function, and improve patients’ quality of life.

https://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier [ChiCTR2300077699].