Objective To investigate the effect of overexpression of cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein transcriptional coactivator 3 (CRCT3) on the proliferation and invasion abilities of the pulmonary adenocarcinoma cell NCI-H1975. Methods (1) Paracancerous tissues (at a distance of >3 cm from the cancerous tissues) and pilmonary adenocarcinoma tissues were collected from 15 patients of pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the expression level of CRTC3 mRNA in these tissues. Western blotting was applied to determine the expression level of CRTC3 protein in the normal human bronchail epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B) and non-small cell lung cancer cell lines (H1299, NCI-H1975, HCC827, A549). (2) NCI-H1975 cells were divided into the blank control group, the negative control group, and the overexpression group. The blank control group was added normal culture medium; the negative control group was transduced with HBLV-ZsGreen-PURO (empty lentivirus); the overexpression group was transduced with LV-h-CRTC3-E/B (overexpressing lentiviral vector). After establishing cell strains with stable overexpression, the colony formation assay was used to assess cell proliferation ability, and the Transwell assay was employed to evaluate cell invasion ability. Results (1) The relative expression level of CRTC3 mRNA in pulmonary adenocarcinoma tissues was lower than that in paracancerous tissues (P<0.05). Compared with BEAS-2B and A549 cells, the relative expression level of CRTC3 protein was increased in H1299 cells and decreased in HCC827 and NCI-H1975 cells (P<0.05). (2) Compared with the blank control group and the negative control group, the number of colonies and invasion were decreased in NCI-H1975 cells of the overexpression group (P<0.05). Conclusion Compared with paracancerous tissues, the expression level of CRCT3 mRNA in cancerous tissues of patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma was decreased. Additionally, the proliferation and invasion abilities of the CRCT3 overexpressing NCI-H1975 cell strain was reduced.