ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with ultrasound in the diagnosis of node metastases in breast cancer patients. MethodsThe articles concerning the diagnosis of node metastases by using MRI combined with ultrasound until September 2016 were searched in the databases including The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CBM, WanFang Data and CNKI. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data according to pre-set included and excluded criteria, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies by using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) tool. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 12.0 software. The pooled weighted sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spe), Positive likehoodn (+LR), Negative likehood (-LR) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were calculated, the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was drawn and the area under the curve was calculated. ResultsA total of eight studies were included, involving 2 288 patients. The pooled Sen, Spe, +LR,-LR, DOR and area under SROC curve of MRI combined with ultrasound in the diagnosis of breast cancer patients with node metastases were 0.74 (95%CI 0.54 to 0.87), 0.95 (95%CI 0.88 to 0.98), 13.95 (95%CI 6.04 to 32.22), 0.28 (95%CI 0.15 to 0.52), 50.38 (95%CI 17.56 to 144.60), and 0.94 (95%CI 0.91 to 0.96), respectively. ConclusionMRI combined with ultrasound has more diagnostic efficiency for assessing lymph node in breast cancer, therefore, it can be used as an effective method with the diagnosis of node metastases in breast cancer patients.