The relationship between excision repair cross-complementing group 5 (ERCC5) rs17655 polymorphism and lung cancer risk remains controversial. To clarify the association, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of all published case-control studies. PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI were searched to identify the possibly eligible publications. Pooled odds ratio (OR) was estimated using the fixed effect model. Q test and I (2) index were used to evaluate heterogeneity between studies, and Egger's and Begg's tests were utilized to assess publication bias. Meta-analysis of nine case-control studies including 4,044 cases and 5,100 controls indicated that there was no global association between rs17655 polymorphism and lung cancer risk. Subgroup analyses according to ethnicity and histologic type revealed similar results. In summary, our meta-analysis suggests that ERCC5 rs17655 polymorphism may not contribute to genetic susceptibility for lung cancer.