The goals of this meta-analysis were to assess the effectiveness of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in patients with prostate carcinoma (PCa) and to explore the risk profiles with the highest benefit. Systematic electronic searched were conducted in database. We used patient-based and biopsy-based pooled weighted estimates of the sensitivity, specificity, and a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve for assessing the diagnostic performance of DCE. We performed direct and indirect comparisons of DCE and other methods of imaging. A total of 26 articles met the inclusion criteria for the analysis. DCE-MRI pooled sensitivity was 0.53 (95% CI 0.39 to 0.67), with a specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.83 to 0.92) on whole gland. The peripheral zone pooled sensitivity was 0.70 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.86), with a specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.94). Compared with T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), DCE was statistically superior to T2. In conclusion, DCE had relatively high specificity in detecting PCa but relatively low sensitivity as a complementary functional method. DCE-MRI might help clinicians exclude cases of normal tissue and serve as an adjunct to conventional imaging when seeking to identify tumor foci in patients with PCa.