Objective To systematically evaluate the association between Caveolin-1 and gastric cancer, as well as its clinical pathologic features. Methods Databases including Wanfang, VIP, CNKI and PubMed were searched to identify case-control studies involving the association between Caveolin-1 and gastric cancer as well as its clinical pathologic features from January 2000 to May 2017. The literatures were screened and the methodological quality was assessed, then RevMan 5.3 software was used to conduct Meta-analysis. Results A total of 12 case-control studies were collected after screening, including 1 380 cases of gastric cancer, with Caveolin-1 expressed positive in 286 cases; 295 cases of non-carcinoma control, with Caveolin-1 expressed positive in 264 cases; 238 cases of precancerous lesions of gastric cancer, with Caveolin-1 expressed positive in 180 cases. Results of Meta-analysis indicated that: as for Caveolin-1 expression, significant differences were found in non-carcinoma vs. gastric cancer [odds ratio (OR)=23.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) (15.19, 37.11), P<0.000 01], precancerous lesions of gastric cancer vs. gastric cancer [OR=6.58, 95%CI (4.52, 9.58), P<0.000 01], and non-carcinoma control vs. precancerous lesions of gastric cancer [OR=2.88, 95%CI (1.58, 5.25), P=0.000 6]. Significant differences were also found between Caveolin-1 expression and gastric cancer clinical pathologic features in undifferentiated vs. differentiated tissue [OR=0.48, 95%CI (0.33, 0.70), P=0.000 1], and without vs. with lymph node metastasis [OR=3.19, 95%CI (1.77, 5.74), P=0.000 1]. Conclusions Caveolin-1 expression is lesser in most gastric cancer patients than in the controls, and is closely associated with its clinical pathologic features. Due to limited quantity and quality of included studies, more high quality studies are needed to verify the conclusion of Caveolin-1 as a tumor marker in gastric cancer.