Gastric cancer is a major global public health problem,and current treatments are characterized by high side effects and drug resistance.Autophagy is a type of programmed cell death that plays an inhibitory or promotional role in different stages of gastric cancer,and regulating autophagy may be a potential pathway for gastric cancer treatment.Traditional Chinese medicine monomers and compounds can intervene in various signaling pathways and targets,and regulate the expression of autophagy factors such as Beclin-1,microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) and ubiquitin-binding receptors P62,which can play the roles of anti-proliferative,pro-apoptotic,and anti-tumorigenic functions by inducing or inhibiting cellular autophagy.By inducing or inhibiting cellular autophagy,these autophagic factors can play positive roles in antiproliferation,pro-apoptosis,inhibition of invasion and metastasis,reversal of epithelial-mesenchymal transition,and drug resistance of tumor cells.In this study,we systematically discussed the mechanism and progress of traditional Chinese medicine regulating autophagy in the treatment of gastric cancer in recent years,with a view to providing new ideas and directions for the treatment of gastric cancer.