Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is suggested to be a long (~7 kb) non-coding RNA. MALAT1 is overexpressed in many human carcinomas, but its function remains unknown. To investigate the role of MALAT1 in human cervical cancer progression, we designed and used short hairpin RNA to inhibit MALAT1 expression in CaSki cells and validated its effect on cell proliferation and invasion. Changes in gene expression were analyzed by reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction. Our data demonstrated that MALAT1 was involved in cervical cancer cell growth, cell cycle progression, and invasion through the regulation of gene expression, such as caspase-3, -8, Bax, Bcl-2, and BclxL, suggesting that MALAT1 could have important implications in cervical cancer biology. Our findings illustrate the biological significance of MALAT1 in cervical cancer progression and provide novel evidence that MALAT1 may serve as a therapeutic target in the prevention of human cervical cancer.