We examined whether metastasis-associated gene 1 (MTA1) promotes cell proliferation via DNA damage repair in ovarian cancer. MTA1 was successfully down-regulated using small interfering RNA in the epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3. Cell growth was evaluated through MTT and colony formation assays. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis was used to evaluate the distribution of cells in the cell cycle, and cytotoxicity assays were performed to study cell sensitivity to cisplatin.