Abstract Molecular epidemiological studies have showed a closer association between microRNA polymorphisms with and head and neck cancer (HNC) risk. But the results of these studies were inconsistent. We performed this meta-analysis to clarify the associations between microRNA polymorphisms and HNC risk. Four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CNKI, and Wanfang) were searched. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CIs) were calculated to assess the association between microRNA-146a rs2910164 G?>?C, microRNA-196a2 rs11614913 C?>?T, microRNA-149 rs2292832 C?>?T, microRNA-499 rs3746444 A?>?G polymorphisms and HNC risk. Heterogeneity, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were conducted to guarantee the statistical power. Overall, 11 selected articles involving 16100 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. Significantly increased risk between microRNA-146a rs2910164 G?>?C polymorphism and HNC risk were observed in Caucasian population (GC vs. GG: OR?=?1.31, 95%CI?=?1.01-1.68; GC?+?CC vs. GG: OR?=?1.26, 95%CI?=?1.02-1.57). For microRNA-196a2 rs11614913 C?>?T, similarly increased risk were also found in Asian population (T vs. C, OR?=?1.14, 95%CI?=?1.04-1.25; TT vs. CC, OR?=?1.33, 95%CI?=?1.09-1.61; CT?+?TT vs. CC OR?=?1.32, 95%CI?=?0.99-1.76; TT vs. CC?+?CT, OR?=?1.14, 95%CI?=?0.99-1.33). In addition, no significant association was detected between microRNA-149 rs2292832 C?>?T and microRNA-499 rs3746444 A?>?G polymorphism and HNC risk. This meta-analysis demonstrates that microRNA polymorphisms are associated with HNC development based on ethnicity diversity. PMID:26277865 Sci Rep. 2015 Aug 17;5:12972. doi: 10.1038/srep12972. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4538372/