Emerging evidence showed that the common polymorphism (CYP1A2*1F, rs762551 C→A) in the promoter region of the CYP1A2 gene might be associated with susceptibility to cancer in humans. But individually published results were inconclusive. The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate the association between CYP1A2*1F polymorphism and cancer risk.The Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science and Chinese BioMedical databases were searched for all articles published up to September 1st, 2012. Statistical analyses were performed using the STATA 12.0 software.Forty-six case–control studies were included with a total of 22,993 cancer cases and 28,420 healthy controls. Meta-analysis results showed that the A allele of CYP1A2*1F polymorphism was associated with a decreased cancer risk (odds ratio [OR]=0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87–0.98, P=0.013). In the subgroup analysis by cancer types, the A allele of CYP1A2*1F polymorphism may increase the risk of breast cancer (OR=1.05, 95% CI: 1.01–1.10, P=0.024), and is also associated with a decreased risk of ovarian cancer (OR=0.70, 95% CI: 0.54–0.89, P=0.004). However, similar results were not found in lung, colorectal, bladder, endometrial, pancreatic and gastric cancers. Further subgroup analysis by ethnicity also showed a significant association between the A allele of CYP1A2*1F polymorphism and a decreased cancer risk among Caucasian populations (OR=0.91, 95% CI: 0.84–0.98, P=0.014); but no significant associations were observed among Asian populations.Results from the current meta-analysis indicate that the A allele of CYP1A2*1F polymorphism may be associated with breast and ovarian cancer risk, especially among Caucasian populations.