Objective: To develop an effective method to detect circulating micrometastases in patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from normal subject were mixed with human pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells in different proportions. The mixed cells of each proportion were sorted by using EpCAM-antibody-coated immunomagnetic nanobeads for separation and enrichment of the tumor cells. Then, the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (h-TERT) and c-met in the tumor cells were detected by RT-nest-PCR, so as to determine the sensitivity of this method. The expressions of h-TERT and c-met in the PBMC from 25 patients with pancreatic cancer and 15 patients with benign diseases were detected by using the above combined immunomagnetic nanobeads and RT-nest-PCR method. The relations of both genes with the clinicopathologic factors were also analyzed. Results: The sensitivity of the combined immunomagnetic nanobeads and RT-nest-PCR method for h-TERT and c-met was 1 tumor cell/1×107 PBMC and 1 tumor cell/1×106 PBMC, respectively. The expression rates of h-TERT and c-met both were 0 (0/15) in benign patients, and was 100% (25/25) and 80% (20/25) in pancreatic cancer patients, respectively. Moreover, the positive expression rate of c-met was significantly related to the tumor stage (P<0.05). Conclusion: Detection of h-TERT and c-met using combined immunomagnetic nanobeads and RT-nest-PCR is a highly sensitive method for identifying the micrometastases of pancreatic cancer in peripheral circulation.