Our study aimed to investigate the association between multidrug resistance (MDR1) C1236T, C3435T and G2677T/A polymorphisms and the response to imatinib (IM) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).In total, 37 studies were initially identified, and 17 studies, involving 2219 CML patients, were included in this meta-analysis. A significant resistance was found for the C3435T variant in the Caucasian population under dominant and heterozygous models and for the wild type (G2677) in Asian population under all models except heterozygous. However, never significative association was found between IM response and the MDR1 C1236T polymorphism.The MDR1 C3435T polymorphisms might be a risk factor for resistance to IM in Caucasian CML patients.