Objective To explore the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the XRCC3 rs861539(Thr241Met) locus and thyroid cancer risk. Methods Studies investigating the association between SNP in the XRCC3 gene and thyroid cancer susceptibility were retrieved from the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), WanFang, and CBM (China Biology Medicine) databases. Eligible studies were screened according to inclusion/exclusion criteria and principles of quality evaluation. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 14.0 software. Odds ratios with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were pooled to assess the association between SNP in the XRCC3 gene rs861539 locus and thyroid cancer susceptibility. Results 10 articles(11 studies) were eligible for this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis results were shown as follows: No significant association was found between XRCC3 rs861539 polymorphism and thyroid cancer risk in Dominant and Overdominant models〔Dominant model: CT+TT vs CC, OR=1.231, 95% CI(0.998, 1.474); Overdominant model: CT vs TT+CC, OR=1.05, 95% CI(0.94, 1.18)〕. Significant associations were found in Recessive and Allelic models〔Recessive model: TT vs CC+CT, OR=1.632, 95% CI(1.349, 1.974); Allelic model: T vs C: OR=1.263, 95% CI(1.091, 1.462)〕. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that the XRCC3 rs861539(Thr241Met) polymorphism may be associated with an increased thyroid cancer risk in overall population, and a tendency for significantly increased thyroid cancer risk in TT(Met/Met) genotype population.