Patients with different types of carcinomas were divided into two groups. One group was treated with western medicine (i.e. cisplatin combined with diuretic therapy) and the other group with Chinese medicine. On the day before chemotherapy Yiqi Jianpi Bushen recipe was administered orally. Urinary enzyme and serum erythropoietin levels were used as main outcome measures. The early renal damage caused by cisplatin occurs in the proximal convoluted tubule, which leads to raised levels of urinary enzyme. The urinary enzyme level of the Chinese medicine group was lower than that of the western medicine group. The lesion of the renal interstitial cells that produces erythropoietin had not caused the serum erythropoietin of the western medicine group to rise significantly after 15 days. As a result, the red blood cell count and haemoglobin levels were lower than normal in 40% of patients. Although the serum erythropoietin levels of the Chinese medicine group were higher than those of the western medicine group, only 5% of patients in the Chinese medicine group had lower red blood cell counts and haemoglobin levels.