Pleural effusion in lung cancer is a common complication of advanced lung cancer, which seriously affects patients’ quality of life and survival. Therefore, the treatment of lung cancer pleural effusion is especially important in the overall comprehensive tumor treatment. At present, there are more methods to treat malignant effusion, but chemotherapy drugs have more toxic side effects and surgery and other methods are mostly not tolerated by late stage patients. Traditional Chinese medicine has certain advantages in the treatment of lung cancer effusion. The treatment of malignant pleural effusion is divided into two kinds of systemic treatment and local treatment. Systemic treatment for advanced lung cancer pleural effusion is used when the pressure symptoms are not very heavy, if the disease is caused by small cell lung cancer, lymphoma and other chemotherapy-sensitive tumors. If the symptoms of pressure are obvious and the primary disease is not sensitive to chemotherapy, thoracic fluid extraction and local injection of chemotherapy drugs are the main treatments. (1) Intrathoracic drainage treatment: The methods of intrathoracic drainage include thoracentesis and closed drainage with thoracic cannula. It is suitable for all malignant pleural effusions for which chemotherapy/intervention is ineffective. (2) Thoracentesis and aspiration: This method is mostly used when there is an urgent need to relieve symptoms, and is suitable for those with other organ metastases or critical conditions. If the amount of fluid is small and slow growing, it is estimated that the fluid can be extracted in 1~2 times, this method is more suitable. Repeated punctures increase the patient’s pain, and it is easy to form a complete control of the effusion, so this method is appropriate for those with large amounts of effusion and rapid growth. (3) At present, there are two types of chest tubes used: coarse tubes and fine tubes. The coarse tube has the advantages of larger lumen, easy drainage of effusion and less obstruction of the lumen, which is suitable for those with high viscosity of malignant effusion. The disadvantages are larger local damage, easy infection, more obvious pain, and easy fluid spillage after extubation. (4) Domestic and foreign reports show that the remission rate of malignant pleural effusion treated with fine tube drainage plus intrathoracic drug injection is 50%~93%. (5) Intrathoracic medication: The therapeutic effect of intrathoracic drug injection depends on whether the pleural effusion is found in time and whether the effusion is drained. At present, the commonly used drugs include sclerosis stimulating drugs, biological response regulators, anti-tumor drugs, etc. Since cancerous pleural effusion is an advanced manifestation of lung cancer, and other organs are often metastasized at the same time when pleural effusion appears, the effect of intracavitary treatment alone is poor, so we should adopt comprehensive treatment, combined with chemotherapy or targeted therapy and traditional Chinese medicine to further prolong the survival time of patients according to their specific conditions. Chinese medicine has the functions of supporting and eliminating evil, anti-tumor and immunomodulation in the treatment of advanced pleural effusion of lung cancer. It has a unique role in improving the immunity of the body, improving clinical symptoms and prolonging the survival period of patients, and it has the effect of increasing the effectiveness and reducing the toxicity when combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Bitter ginseng, Tu Fu Ling, Shan Ci mushroom, Wu Ling Li and He Shou Wu in Chinese medicine can protect and even enhance the immune function of the body in chemotherapy, and combined with chemotherapy can improve clinical efficacy, reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy, treat malignant pleural effusion, relieve pain and improve the quality of survival without obvious toxic side effects. The main chemical component of Chinese medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza is salvia ketone, which has the effect of inducing differentiation of tumor cells in vitro. It has been reported that the efficiency of Chinese medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza combined with chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer is 37%. Chinese herbal formula with systemic chemotherapy and intrathoracic infusion of chemotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of advanced pleural effusion of lung cancer also has good efficacy. The total effective rate of Chinese herbal medicine with intra-thoracic infusion of Cymbidium and systemic chemotherapy was 80%, and it could improve the physical quality, improve the quality of life and prolong the survival time of patients. In conclusion, the results of several studies have shown that Chinese herbal medicine with chemotherapy can more effectively inhibit the production of malignant thoracic ascites and can significantly reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs in the treatment of malignant thoracic ascites.