Abstract： Objective To investigate the expression and significance of Bmi-1 in pancreatic cancer.Methods The expression of Bmi-1 mRNA was detected in pancreatic cancer and matched adjacent normal tissues by using real-time PCR in 22 cases of human pancreatic carcinoma.Bmi-1 and p16 protein were determined in 61 cases of human pancreatic carcinoma with immunohistochemistry and their relationship with clinicopathologic parameters was analyzed.Results The expression of Bmi-1 mRNA was 0.314 ±0.040 in cancerous tissues, and 0.143 ±0.056 in adjacent normal tissues, and the difference was statistically significant (P ＜0.01 ).36 cases (59.0%) of PC were detected with positive expression of Bmi-1 protein, and 34 cases (55.7%) with no expression of p16 protein.The expression of Bmi-1 was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis ( P = 0.020 ) and tumor differentiation ( P = 0.018 ); the expression of Bmi-1 was negatively correlated with the expression of p16 ( P = 0.033 ).Conclusions Expression of Bmi-1 was increased in pancreatic cancer, which may be involved in the malignant behavior of pancreatic cancer by inhibiting p16 expression.