Objective To investigate the effects of Yiqi Yangyin Chujie Formula（ qi-tonifying yin-nourishing mass-eliminating formula） combined with cisplatin on the apoptosis of human lung adenocarcinoma cell A549. Methods Human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 was cultured in vitro and then divided into four groups: blank control group

Yiqi Yangyin Chujie Formula group（ TCM group）

cisplatin group and combined treatment group. The blank control group received no intervention. TCM group was treated with Yiqi Yangyin Chujie Formula at doses of 1 000 mg / L

500 mg / L

200 mg / L

100 mg / L

50 mg / L and 20 mg / L respectively. Cisplatin doses were set at 4 mg / L or 8 mg / L while the combined treatment group was treated with both cisplatin and TCM formula at dose combinations mentioned above. Then cell proliferation inhibition was tested by using tetrazolium（ MTT） colorimetric assay. Terminally labeled transferase technique（ TUNNEL） apoptosis of A549 cells was applied. Expression of Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 were determined by using immunocytochemistry technique. Results MTT assay showed that the inhibition rates of experiment group were significantly higher than those of control group（ P

<

0. 05

P

<

0. 001） with the combined group（ 200 mg / L TCM + 4 mg / L cisplatin） topping the list. TUNNEL showed that numbers of apoptotic cells in the experiment groups were significantly higher than that of the control group（ P

<

0. 01

P

<

0. 001） with the highest number observed in the combined treatment group（ 200 mg / L TCM + 4 mg / L cisplatin）. Expression of Bcl-2 decreased in all experiment groups compared with that of control group. The reduction was significant（ P

<

0. 01） in cisplatin group（ 4 mg /L） and combined treatment group（ 200 mg / L TCM + 4 mg / L cisplatin）. Expression of Caspase-3 increased in all experiment groups compared with that of control group. The increase（ P

<

0. 05

P

<

0.01） was significant in TCM group（ 200 mg / L） and combined treatment group（ 200 mg / L TCM + 4 mg /L cisplatin）. Conclusion Yiqi Yangyin Chujie Formula could inhibit the proliferation of A549 cell through inducing apoptosis of A549

which appears to be more effective when combined with cisplatin.Its mechanism may be related with the suppression of Bcl-2 and enhancement of Caspase-3 expression.