Several genome-wide association studies have already explored the associations between rs498872 polymorphism and glioma, but the results of these studies were not consistent. Consequently, we conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies to better analyze the effects of rs498872 polymorphism on individual susceptibility to glioma. PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were searched for eligible studies. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Totally, 12 studies with 36,264 subjects were analyzed. A significant association with glioma was observed for the rs498872 polymorphism in CC versus CT + TT (dominant comparison, p < 0.0001, OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.76–0.85), TT versus CC + CT (recessive comparison, p < 0.0001, OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.13–1.34), CT versus CC + TT (overdominant comparison, p < 0.0001, OR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.09–1.21) and C versus T (allele comparison, p < 0.0001, OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.84–0.90). Further subgroup analyses yielded similar positive results in both Asians and Caucasians. Our findings suggested that the rs498872 polymorphism may serve as a potential genetic biomarker of glioma in both Asians and Caucasians. © 2019, Belgian Neurological Society.