BACKGROUND: The prognostic significance of PBK/TOPK overexpression in solid tumors remains controversial. Therefore, we carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of PBK/TOPK overexpression in solid tumors on patients' overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). METHODS: Relevant articles were identified through searching the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science up to May 2017. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to estimate the effects. RESULTS: In this meta-analysis, 12 studies involving 1571 participants were included, PBK/TOPK overexpression was significantly associated with poor OS (pooled HR = 1.91, 95%CI = 1.22-3.00, P = .005) and short DFS (pooled HR = 1.95, 95%CI = 1.46-2.58, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: PBK/TOPK overexpression was associated with poor survival in human solid tumors which may be a valuable prognosis biomarker and a potential therapeutic target of solid tumors.