Objective To explore the effect of modified Yi Yan Xiao Formula （胰岩消方加减） combined with chemotherapy on the quality of life and survival time in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Methods Sixty-four patients with advanced pancreatic cancer were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group with 32 cases in each group. Patients in both groups received chemotherapy including intravenous drip of gemcitabine（1000 mg/m

2

each time on the first and eighth day） and oral administration of tigio（60 mg/m

2

per day

twice daily

for 14 consecutive days and then stop medication for seven days）; the chemotherapy regimen was repeated every 3 weeks as a course for two courses. The treatment group was additionally given modified Yi Yan Xiao Formula adjusted to different TCM syndromes

one dose per day for 3 months. The Karnofsky performance status（KPS） and the functional assessment of cancer therapy-general（FACT-G） were used to evaluate the quality of life of patients

and the clinical effects

median survival time and adverse events rate were assessed and compared between two groups. Results The KPS scores of both groups increased after treatment（P

<

0.05）

and more increase was seen in the treatment group than in the control group（P

<

0.05）. The scores of the three domains of the physiological status

emotional status

and pancreatic disease-related symptoms of both groups significantly decreased after treatment（P

<

0.05）

and more decrease was seen in the treatment group（P

<

0.05）. The scores of the two domains of social/family status and functional status in the treatment group were higher after treatment than those before treatment（P

<

0.05）. The disease control rate in the treatment group was 62.5%

significantly higher than 40.6% in the control group（P

<

0.05）. The median survival time of the treatment group was 7.1 months

which was longer than 5.7 months of the control group（P

<

0.05）. The adverse events rate in the treatment group was 37.5%

significantly lower than 75.0% in the control group（P

<

0.05）. Conclusion Modified Yi Yan Xiao Formula combined with chemotherapy have a synergistic effect in improving quality of life

increasing disease control rate

prolonging survival time

and reducing adverse events rate in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.