Cancer is already a well-recognized main cause of mortality and the incidence of cancer is increasing steadily. Because conventional treatment modalities for cancer accompanies severe side effects, traditional medicine has been considered as alternatives to reduce the adverse effects and its use has continued to rise in cancer therapy. This study aims to summarize and make a reference of radioprotective effects of herbs worldwide. In this process, this review surveyed all papers of radioprotective-focused studies using herbal medicine in PubMed database and finally 44 papers were included. The type of materials, formation of experiments, type of herbal medicine, their action and mechanisms, and type of cancer were analyzed. The number of studies on radioprotective effects of herbal medicine has increased since 2000. The main formation of experiments was clinical study and the portion was 45% and the proportion of the research using prescriptions was 51% and the research using herbal products was 25%. Herbs and prescriptions having the effects of tonifying and nourishment were used the most. Most of herbal medicine in this study can enhance immune function, increase anti-oxidant effect, regulate cell cycle and increase sensitivity to radiotherapy. This study will provide the useful information on development of herbal medicine having radioprotective effects.