Objective To evaluate the short-term efficacy and safety of nedaplatin combined with gemcitabine compared with cisplatin combined with gemcitabine in the treatment of advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma. Methods The Cochrane Library, EMbase, PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang, VIP, CNKI and China General Library of Biomedical Literature were searched. Literatures related to the efficacy and safety of nedaplatin combined with gemcitabine (nedaplatin group) versus cisplatin combined with gemcitabine (cisplatin group) in the treatment of advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma published from the inception to October 2021 were searched. The quality of included studies was assessed by Cochrane bias assessing tool and the meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan 5.4. Results A total of 10 articles were included covering 914 patients. Meta-analysis showed that the objective remission rate (OR=1.51, 95%CI 1.13-2.01, P=0.005), disease control rate (OR=1.54, 95%CI 1.10-2.15, P=0.01) and 1-year survival rate (OR=2.29, 95%CI 1.25-4.18, P=0.007) of the nedaplatin group were better than those of the cisplatin group. In terms of side effects, the incidence of white blood cell and hemoglobin decline, nausea and vomiting, and diarrhea in the nedaplatin group was lower than that in the cisplatin group (P≤0.05). The differences in the platelet decline and liver and kidney damage between the two groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion For patients with advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma, the short-term efficacy of nedaplatin combined with gemcitabine may be better than cisplatin combined with gemcitabine, and the incidence of adverse reactions is lower.