Expression of c-Met protein in the gastric cancer tissue was correlated with lymph node metastasis (χ2 = 4.172, P = 0.041), peritoneal metastasis (χ2 = 4.610, P = 0.032), and hepatic metastasis (χ2 = 5.323, P = 0.021), but not with age, gender, tumor size, location, clinical stage or the degree of histological differentiation (P>0.05). Here, MET is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.