Objective To investigate the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase 2-interacting protein (CINP) in lung adenocarcinoma and its effect on proliferation, migration and invasion of lung adenocarcinoma. Methods Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to examine the expression and prognosis of CINP in various datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The expression levels of CINP in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and adjacent tissues from 15 patients with primary lung adenocarcinoma were validated using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. Cell lines with knocked-down CINP were established using human lung adenocarcinoma cells A549 and NCI-H1299, and 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine cell proliferation (EdU) assays, Transwell assays, and wound healing assays were performed to explore the correlation between CINP gene expression and the progression of lung adenocarcinoma. Results In the GSE10072 and GSE30219 datasets, the expression level of the CINP gene in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in normal lung tissues, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). According to the CINP mRNA expression of lung adenocarcinoma patients in GSE30219 dataset, these patients were classified into a CINP low-expression group and a CINP high-expression group. CINP high-expression group had shorter survival and recurrence times compared to those with CINP low-expression group (all P<0.05). The dectection results of the CINP mRNA expression levels in both the lung adenocarcinoma tissues and the adjacent tissues of 15 lung adenocarcinoma patients revealed that the relative expression level of CINP mRNA in the lung adenocarcinoma tissues was notably higher than that in the adjacent tissues, and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The siRNA was applied to engineer A549 and H1299 lung adenocarcinoma cell lines with knocked-down CINP expression. The results demonstrated that following the knocked-down of CINP, the relative expression levels of CINP mRNA in both cell lines were markedly reduced (all P<0.05). Compared to the si-NC group, at 48 hours after transfection, the si-CINP group in two cell lines showed a significant decrease in the EdU positive rate (all P<0.05), while after CINP knockdown, these cell lines also presented significantly reduced cell migration and invasion abilities (all P<0.05), and at 24 and 48 hours, the si-CINP group had a significantly lower healing rate of the cell scratch area compared to the si-NC group (all P<0.05). Conclusion CINP is over-expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and is associated with poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients. Moreover, the knockdown of CINP can inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion capabilities of lung adenocarcinoma cells.