Objective To observe the role of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）therapy in improving the survival time of patients with medium and advanced non-small cell lung cancer（NSCLC）， and discussed the best treatment for the advanced NSCLC. Methods Take the cases which confirm the standards into the chemotherapy group and the chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine group respectively. Eligible patients included in the study， 219cases of which 93cases in the chemotherapy group，126 cases in the chemotherapy combined with TCM group. The ultimate index median survival time was analyzed with Kaplan Meier method. Results The 1-，2-year survival and the median survival time for the chemotherapy group and the chemotherapy combined with TCM group was 69.9%， 17.5%， 487days and 72.7%， 35.2%， 589days respectively（X2=7.063，P=0.008）. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant by the statistically analysis P<0.05. Conclusion This study shows that the chemotherapy combined with TCM group have advantages in prolong the survival time of patients with the advanced NSCLC. So chemotherapy combined with TCM therapy in advanced NSCLC is a very effective treatment program.