ObjectiveTo explore the effect of licorice and dried ginger decoction on epithelial-mesenchymal transition and invasion of breast cancer 4T1 cells in mice.Methods4T1 cells were inoculated into the armpits of mice for modeling. After successful modeling, the mice were divided into the control group (without intervention) and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) group (0.9 g/kg licorice and dried ginger decoction for 20 consecutive days), with 20 mice in each group. The optical density was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the proliferation inhibition rate of peritoneal macrophages was calculated. The invasion and migration abilities of cells were compared by Transwell assay. The wound healing test was used to detect the cell healing ability, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related protein expression test was used to detect the abnormal transformation of cells.ResultsCompared with the same group at 6 hours, the cell proliferation inhibition rate, invasiveness, migration ability and healing rate at other time points in both groups were all increased (P<0.05). At 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours, the cell proliferation inhibition rate, invasiveness, migration ability and healing rate of the TCM group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The incidence of epithelial-mesenchymal non-transformation in the TCM group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the incidence of abnormal transformation with epithelial marker deletion was higher than that in the control group, and the difference were statistically significant(P<0.05).ConclusionLicorice and dried ginger decoction can inhibit the invasion, migration, cell healing and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer 4T1 cells in mice.