ObjectiveTo systematicly evaluate expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in colorectal cancer (CRC) and its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics of patient with CRC.MethodsPubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and other databases were searched comprehensively. The retrieved literatures were imported into Endnote X9. The data about the expression of EpCAM in the CRC and the relationship between EpCAM expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with CRC were screened and extracted. RevMan 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 5 396 patients with CRC were included. The meta-analysis results showed that the expression rate of EpCAM in the CRC tissues or blood was significantly higher than that in the benign colorectal tumor and normal tissue or blood (P<0.05). The high expression rates of EpCAM in the Dukes C+D stage, tumor diameter >3 cm, infiltration state of tumor margin, with lymph node and distant metastasis of the CRC were significantly higher than those in the A+B stage, tumor diameter ≤3 cm, dilated state of tumor margin, without lymph node and distant metastasis (P<0.05).ConclusionResults of this meta-analysis suggest that expression of EpCAM might be related to some clinicopathologic characteristics (carcinogenesis, Dukes stage, tumor size, tumor margin morphology, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis) of patients with CRC.