Objective For the dispute on the superiority of the pemetrexed compared with the docetaxel for treating advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), this study is conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed versus docetaxel for patients with NSCLC. Methods Such databases as The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, SCI, CBM, CNKI, and VIP were searched to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about pemetrexed versus docetaxel for the treatment of NSCLC published before November of 2010. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodology quality. RevMan 5.0 software was used for meta-analyses. Results Five studies involving 847 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that, in the aspect of efficacy, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the effective rate (OR=1.09, 95%CI 0.7 to 1.70), the disease control rate (OR=0.99, 95%CI 0.75 to 1.31), and the one-year survival rate (OR=1.11, 95%CI 0.56 to 2.18); in the aspect of safety, compared with docetaxel, pemetrexed could reduce the neutropenia (OR=0.09, 95%CI 0.05 to 0.15), the febrile neutropenia (OR=0.13, 95%CI 0.06 to 0.29) and the alopecia (OR=0.20, 95%CI 0.12 to 0.33), but no significant difference was found in haemoglobin (OR=1.45, 95%CI 0.23 to 9.06), thrombocytopenia (OR=1.46, 95%CI 0.59 to 3.59), nausea and vomiting (OR=1.23, 95%CI 0.53 to 2.83) and fatigue and debilitation (OR=0.73, 95%CI 0.40 to 1.30). Conclusion As the current evidence shows, pemetrexed has similar efficacy to docetaxel for advanced NSCLC patients, but it has fewer side effects of neutropenia, febrile neutropenia and alopecia.