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Background There is great controversy as to whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) polymorphisms affect survival of cancer patients.The aim of this study was to qualitatively review the association between VEGF +936C>T polymorphism and cancer patients outcome by performing a meta-analysis.Methods We performed a systematic search of literature using the PubMed and Embase online databases with a combination of key words (VEGF, polymorphism, and cancer) from May 1998 to January 2011.The required data for estimation of individual hazard ratios (HRs) for progressive free survival (PFS) and overall survival were extracted from the publications and a combined HR was calculated.Results A total of twenty case-only studies, 6694 patients with trial sizes ranging from 53 to 1105, were identified.Overall, no significant associations between the VEGF +936C>T polymorphism and PFS were found for CT versus CC (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.79-1.07), TT versus CC (HR 1.17, 95% CI 0.51-1.77).However, patients with CT/TT genotype seemed to have longer PFS compared to patients with CC genotype (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.53-0.80).And patients carrying the variant T allele of VEGF +936C>T polymorphism had significantly improved survival, CT versus CC (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.75-0.95), TT versus CC (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.33-0.72), CT/TT versus CC (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.76-0.98).Conclusion In the light of these results, VEGF +936C>T polymorphism may affect the progression and survival of cancer patients.