Objective To establishment of human pancreatic cancer mouse model labeled with luciferase and evaluate bioluminescent imaging and ultrasound imaging for tumor burden and tumor progression in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer． Method The human pancreatic cancer cell line Capan-2，engineered for stable，high-level expression of luciferin ( LUC) ，was implanted into pancreas and subcutaneous tissue of nude mice． The tumors were allowed to grow over a period of one to several weeks during which time the mice were imaged using both bioluminescent imaging and ultrasound imaging to monitor tumor growth． Result The successful rate of orthotopic and subcutaneous transplantation was 75% and 100% separately． The whole-body optical imaging found that the fluorescence could be detected after 7 days of orthotopic transplantation． The size of tumor can be measured after 7 days of subcutaneous transplantation by ultrasound imaging but it can't be done in orthotopic transplantation． Otherwise the growth rate of tumor besides subcutaneous is about 3 times faster than pancreas． Conclusion Bioluminescent imaging is more suitable for monitoring the tumor at the early stage，and provides an ideal tool to further study the development of tumor and the mechanism of metastasis．