Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <bold>Background:</bold> Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a common post-breast cancer treatment complication with a high incidence that severely impairs patients’ quality of life, necessitating more effective therapeutic strategies. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been increasingly explored as a potential adjunctive therapy for BCRL management. The aim of this umbrella review was to synthesize evidence from meta-analyses to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of TCM interventions for BCRL. <bold>Methods:</bold> Eight electronic databases were searched from their inception until November 2025. The methodological quality of the included meta-analyses was assessed using the AMSTAR-2 tool. Moreover, the quality of evidence for the outcome measures was evaluated by the GRADE system. <bold>Results</bold> Sixteen meta-analyses, reporting pooled effect sizes for multiple clinical outcomes, were included in this umbrella review. TCM interventions analyzed comprised acupuncture-based therapies and Chinese herbal medicine. The findings revealed that TCM significantly improved BCRL-related outcomes, including increased total effective rate, reduced pain intensity, improved shoulder range of motion, and decreased limb circumference. Notably, combination therapies tended to yield larger effect sizes than monotherapies, and certain acupuncture techniques showed particularly pronounced benefits. However, substantial heterogeneity and methodological limitations across the included studies warrant cautious interpretation of these findings. <bold>Conclusion</bold> This umbrella review underscores the therapeutic potential of TCM, particularly acupuncture-based therapies and Chinese herbal medicine, in improving clinical outcomes for patients with BCRL. However, due to the low quality of the SRs/MAs supporting these results, high-quality studies with rigorous study designs and larger samples are needed before widespread recommendations can be made. </p>