Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of anacardic acid (AA) on ovarian cancer cell lines and its molecular mechanism. Methods Two groups of ovarian carcinoma cell lines (SKOV3 and HO8910) were exposed to AA (2.5, 5, 10 and 15μmol/L). MTT method was employed to evaluate the cell proliferation effects of AA, and Transwell was performed to detect the migration and invasion of AA on ovarian cancer cell. Cells invading pseudopodia formation and scratch repair experiments were tested by Ghost pen cyclic peptide dyeing. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting were used to assess the mRNA and protein expression levels of Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Caspase 3. Results With the increase of concentration of AA, the 24 h optical density (OD) value of SKOV3 and HO8910 cell lines increased significantly (P＜ 0.05). After 24 h, the proliferation activity of SKOV3 and HO8910 enhanced obviously in group 10 and 15μmol/L when compared with control subjects (P＜ 0.05), and mRNA and protein expression of PI3K and VEGF upregulated significantly (P＜ 0.05), while, in contrast, mRNA and protein expression of Caspase 3 down-regulated in comparison to untreated control cells (P＜ 0.05). Conclusion Our results suggest that AA may promote the proliferation, invasion, metastasis and lamellipodia formation in ovarian cancer cell lines via PI3K, VEGF and Caspase 3 pathways.