Previous studies evaluating the association between excision repair cross-complimentary group 2 (ERCC2) Lys751Gln polymorphism and susceptibility to cutaneous melanoma reported conflicting findings. We searched PubMed and Wangfang Medical databases up to October 16, 2012 to identify eligible studies. A total of 8 case-control studies including 3,492 cases and 5,381 controls were included in the meta-analysis. Statistical analysis was performed with Review Manage version 5.1. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 %CIs) were used to assess the strength of the association. There was no obvious between-study heterogeneity among those eight studies under all four comparison models. Overall, there was a significant association between ERCC2 Lys751Gln polymorphism and susceptibility to cutaneous melanoma under three genetic models (for Gln versus Lys: OR = 1.08, 95 % CI = 1.01-1.15, P = 0.02; for GlnGln versus LysLys: OR = 1.16, 95 % CI = 1.01-1.33, P = 0.03; for GlnGln/LysGln versus LysLys: OR = 1.10, 95 % CI = 1.01-1.21, P = 0.04). Sensitivity analysis by omitting one study a time showed the significance of the pooled ORs was stable under all those three genetic models above. Therefore, the meta-analysis suggests that there is a significant association between ERCC2 Lys751Gln polymorphism and susceptibility to cutaneous melanoma.