Objective To study the effect of compound matrine injection combined with chemotherapy on the immune function and life quality of elderly patients with colorectal cancer. Methods Seventy patients with colorectal cancer treated in Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People′s Hospital South Campus from January 2010 to December 2013 were involved in this survey. They were divided into the control group and the observation group randomly,each group had 35 cases,the control group was treated with chemotherapy only, the observation group was treated with compound matrine injection combine with chemotherapy. The curative effect,life quality and immune function in the two groups were compared. Results The number of complete remission patients in the observation group was 8 cases ( 22. 86%) ,the number of partial remission cases was 16 cases ( 45. 71%) , the effective rate was 68. 57%, while the control group had 4 cases of complete remission (11. 43%),11 cases of partial remission (31. 43%),the effective rate was 42. 86% (Z=-2. 259,P=0. 024) . In the observation group,life quality was significantly improved in 10 cases (28. 57%),improved in 19 cases ( 54. 29%) ,the effective rate was 82. 86%,while in the control group,life quality was significantly improved in 4 cases ( 11. 43%) ,and improved in 10 cases ( 28. 57%) ,the effective rate was only 40%. The improvement rate of the two groups was statistically significant ( Z=-3. 497,P=0. 000) . Before treatment,the immune function indexes of patients in the two groups were close ( P>0. 05) ,after treatment,the immune function in both groups were significantly improved,CD3+,CD4+,CD4+/CD8+ levels of patients in the observation group were higher than those in the control group,while the CD8+ level in the observation group was lower than that of the control group ( t=-3. 968,P=0. 000;t=-5. 351,P=0. 000;t=-5. 474,P=0. 000;t=6. 407,P=0. 000) . The follow?up time of the two groups was 36 months. After 36 months,the survival rates of the observation group and the control group were 85. 7% (30/35) and 80. 0% (28/35) respectively,and the difference was not statistically significant (χ2=0. 402,P=0. 526) . Conclusion Compound matrine injection combined with chemotherapy can significantly improve the clinical efficacy of elderly patients with colorectal cancer,improve the immune function and quality of life,it is worthy of clinical application.