ObjectiveTo systematically review the correlation between the expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) protein and different clinical pathological features of renal cell cancer. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang Data from inception to June 2015 to collect case-control studies investigating the correlation between HIF-1α protein expression and different clinical pathological features of renal cell cancer. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 8 case-control studies involving 429 cases of renal cell cancer and 130 cases of normal renal tissue were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that:HIF-1α protein expression was higher in the renal cell cancer group than that in the normal renal tissue group (OR=16.76, 95%CI 8.53 to 32.92, P<0.000 01); HIF-1α protein expression was higher in the lymph node metastasis group than that in the non-lymphnode metastasis group (OR=4.33, 95%CI 2.53 to 7.39, P<0.000 01); HIF-1α protein expression was higher in the TNM Ⅲ-IV group than that in the TNM I-Ⅱ group (OR=0.30, 95%CI 0.18 to 0.51, P<0.000 1); HIF-1α protein expression was higher in the Fuhrman pathology classification G3+G4 group than that in the G1+G2 group (OR=0.54, 95%CI 0.29 to 0.98, P=0.04). However, there were no significant differences in HIF-1α protein expression between the age≥50 group and the age <50 group (OR=1.09, 95%CI 0.54 to 2.19, P=0.82), and between the male group and the female group (OR=0.77, 95%CI 0.48 to 1.25, P=0.29). ConclusionHIF-1α protein expression is significantly correlated to the clinical stage and pathological grading of renal cell cancer. It is possibly involved in the initiation and development of renal cell cancer. Due to the limited quantity and quality of included studies, the above conclusion needs to be further verified by more high quality studies.