Colorectal cancer is a common malignancy with an annual death of 0.5 millions of people worldwide. Currently the most accepted method of treating colorectal cancer is operation. With the popularization of the concept of multidisciplinary treatment, the research of chinese medicine in the treatment of colorectal cancer is furthered. More and more studies show that chinese medicine can prevent or reduce adverse effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and can also reduce postoperative tumor recurrence and metastasis, so as to prolong the life span and improve life quality. Although much has been achieved, many questions have yet to be solved. Clinical research with chinese medicine only is less, which cannot reflect the principle of treatment based on syndrome differentiation; the credibility and generalizability of chinese medicine were restricted because of the absent of standard effectiveness evaluation system; high quality, large sample, multi-center, randomized double-blind clinical researches need to be carried out.