ObjectiveTo systematically review the correlation between the expression of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MethodsPubMed, EMbase, CJFD, CBM, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data and The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2015) were electronically searched from inception to January 1st 2015 to collect case-control studies about the correlation between CK19 expression and clinical pathogenic features in OSCC. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 11 studies were included, involving 612 OSCC cases and 564 normal controls. The results of meta-analysis showed that:The expression levels of CK19 were significantly different between the OSCC group and the control group, between OSCC groups with and without lymph node metastasis, between the high differentiation group and the middle/poor differentiation group, and between the clinical stage I group and the clinical stages Ⅱ to Ⅲ group (all P values≤0.05). However, there were no significant differences in expression levels of CK19 between the male OSCC group and the female OSCC group, and between the carcinoma size T1/T2 group and the T3/T4 group (all P values >0.05). ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that, CK19 expression may be associated with the occurrence, development and transfer of OSCC, and may be positively corrected with tumor malignance. It may be an indicator of poor prognosis and can be considered as a molecular marker of OSCC.