Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of chemotherapy regimens represented by pirarubicin (THP) vs. adriamycin hydrochloride (ADM) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in mainland China. Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about THP vs. ADM for treating NHL were collected in the databases such as CNKI, CBM, VIP and WanFang Data, and the references of the included studies were also retrieved manually, with the retrieval time from January 1989 to September 2012. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened articles, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.0 software. Results A total of 15 RCTs involving 1 659 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: a) As for the total effective rate, the CTOP (C: cyclophosphamide, T: pirarubicin, O: vincristine, P: prednison) regimen was superior to the CHOP (C: cyclophosphamide H: adriamycin hydrochloride, O: vincristine, P: prednison) regimen with a significant difference (OR=1.07, 95%CI 1.02 to 1.12, P=0.006); and b) As for the safety, there were significant differences between the two groups in the incidence of cardiac toxicity (OR=0.42, 95%CI 0.30 to 0.57, Plt;0.000 01), gastrointestinal tract response (OR=0.69, 95%CI 0.56 to 0.85, P=0.000 5) and liver damage (OR=0.69, 95%CI 0.48 to 1.00, P=0.05). But no significant differences were found between the two groups in the incidence of mye1osuppression: the decreased hemoglobin (OR=0.83, 95%CI 0.61 to 1.14, P=0.25), leucopenia (OR=0.85, 95%CI 0.68 to 1.07, P=0.17), and thrombocytopenia (OR=0.99, 95%CI 0.70 to 1.39, P=0.95). Conclusion Based on the domestic evidences at current and compared with CHOP regimen represented by ADM, CTOP regimen represented by THP for treating NHL shows a higher total effective rate and less side effects. However, more high quality, large sample and double blind RCTs are required to prove this conclusion for the quality and quantity limitation of the included studies.