ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemotherapy containing tegafur gimeracil oteracil potassium (S-1) combined with surgery in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.MethodsWe searched EMbase, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI and WanFang Data from inception to February 2017, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about neoadjuvant chemotherapy containing S-1 combined with surgery in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 11 RCTs involving 971 advanced gastric cancer patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the neoadjuvant chemotherapy containing S-1 combined with surgery group was superior to the control group in R0 resection rate (OR=2.75, 95%CI 1.91 to 3.95, P<0.000 01), 2 year survival rate (OR=1.72, 95%CI 1.01 to 2.93, P=0.05) and 3 year survival rate (OR=1.64, 95%CI 1.12 to 2.41, P=0.01), while there were no statistical differences in response rate (OR=1.33, 95%CI 0.70 to 2.51, P=0.39), 1 year survival rate (OR=1.50, 95%CI 0.64 to 3.53, P=0.35) and the incidence of postoperative complications (OR=1.00, 95%CI 0.66 to 1.51, P=0.98).ConclusionNeoadjuvant chemotherapy containing S-1 combined with surgery can improve the R0 resection rate, 2-year survival rate and 3-year survival rate without increase postoperative complications rate. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.