Objective To systematically review the correlation between epidermal growth factor (EGF) 61A/G polymorphism and the risk of esophageal carcinoma. Methods Such databases as PubMed, EMbase, CJFD, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were electronically searched from inception to January 1st, 2013, to collect case-control studies on the correlation between epidermal growth factor (EGF) 61A/G polymorphism and the risk of esophageal carcinoma. Two reviewers independently identified the literature according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the quality of the included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 and Stata 12.0 software. Results A total of six studies involving 1 448 cases and 1 728 control subjects were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, there was no significant association between EGF 61A/G polymorphism and the risk of esophageal carcinoma (dominant model: AG+GG vs. AA: OR=1.22, 95%CI 0.91 to 1.65; and recessive model: GG vs. AG+AA: OR=1.35, 95%CI 0.94 to 1.94; AG vs. AA: OR=1.12, 95%CI 0.93 to 1.35; GG vs. AA: OR=1.43, 95%CI 0.83 to 2.47). The results of subgroup analysis grouped by ethnicity showed that, EGF 61A/G polymorphism increased the risk of esophageal carcinoma of the White population (dominant model: AG+GG vs. AA: OR=1.39, 95%CI 1.14 to 1.71; and recessive model: GG vs. AG+AA: OR=1.75, 95%CI 1.37 to 2.25; GG vs. AA: OR=1.93, 95%CI 1.47 to 2.55). However, it had no correlation to the risk of esophageal carcinoma of Asian population. Conclusion Current studies showed that, EGF 61A/G polymorphism is not associated with susceptibility to esophageal carcinoma , but it may increase the risk of esophageal carcinoma in White population. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, the above conclusion needs to be verified by more studies with large sample size.