ObjectiveTo explore the significance of mesenchymal epithelial transition factor (MET) as a clinical prognostic evaluation index for patients with pancreatic cancer based on bioinformatics analysis.MethodsThe GSE28735 and GSE62452 gene chips from GEO database were downloaded and the difference of MET gene expression between cancer and adjacent cancerous tissues were analyzed by bioinformatics. We downloaded pancreatic cancer gene chip from TCGA database to analyze the correlation between MET gene expression and clinicopathological features of pancreatic cancer patients and prognosis risk. Finally, the possible molecular mechanism of MET involved in pancreatic carcinogenesis was analyzed by GO and KEGG enrichment analysis.ResultsThe expression level of MET gene in pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent cancerous tissues (P<0.001). The overall survival and disease-free survival of pancreatic cancer patients in the high MET gene expression group were lower than those in the low expression group (P<0.001). The expression level of MET gene was related to the age of pancreatic cancer patients, T stage, and histological grading of tumors (P<0.05), and high MET gene expression, age >65 years, and N1 stage were independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that MET was mainly related to PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, FAK signaling pathway, and cancer transcription dysregulation and so on.ConclusionMET may be a valuable tumor marker for pancreatic cancer and can predict the poor prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer.