AIM: To investigate the association of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) polymorphisms with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in a central Taiwanese population. METHODS: Three hundred and sixty-two patients with colorectal cancer and the same number of recruited age-and gender-matched healthy controls were genotyped. And only those matches with all single nucleotide poly-morphisms data (case/control = 362/362) were selected for final analyzing. RESULTS: There were significant differences between CRC and control groups in the distributions of their genotypes (P = 1.6 × 10 -12 and 3.0 × 10 -4 ) and allelic frequencies (P = 2.3 × 10 -13 and 4.0 × 10 -5 ) in the Cav-1 G14713A (rs3807987) and T29107A (rs7804372) poly-morphisms respectively. As for the haplotype analysis,those who had GG/AT or GG/AA at Cav-1 G14713A/ T29107A showed a 0.68-fold (95% CI: 0.48-0.98) de- creased risk of CRC compared to those with GG/TT,while those of any other combinations were of increased risk. There were joint effects of Cav-1 G14713A and T29107A genotype with smoking status on individual CRC susceptibility. CONCLUSION: This is the first report providing evidence of Cav-1 being involved in CRC and it may be novel useful genomic markers for early detection of CRC. To investigate the association of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) polymorphisms with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in a central Taiwanese population. METHODS: Three hundred and sixty-two patients with colorectal cancer and the same number of recruited age-and gender-matched healthy controls were genotyped. And only those matches with all single nucleotide poly-morphisms data (case / control = 362/362) were selected for final analyzing. RESULTS: There were significant differences between CRC and control groups in the distributions of Their genotypes (P = 1.6 × 10 -12 and 3.0 × 10 -4) and allelic frequencies (P = 2.3 × 10 -13 and 4.0 × 10 -5) in the Cav-1 G14713A (rs3807987) and T29107A (rs7804372) poly -morphisms respectively. As for the haplotype analysis, those who had GG / AT or GG / AA at Cav-1 G14713A / T29107A showed a 0.68-fold (95% CI: 0.48-0.98) de- creased risk of CRC compared to those with GG / TT, while those of any other combinations were of increased risk. There were joint effects of Cav -1 G14713A and T29107A genotype with smoking status on individual CRC susceptibility. CONCLUSION: This is the first report providing evidence of Cav-1 being involved in CRC and it may be novel useful genomic markers for early detection of CRC.