The oncogenic roles of ETV4 have been revealed in multiple cancers. However, its expression and functions in lung cancer are rarely explored. Here, we firstly detected the expression of ETV4 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) via online data and local experiment validation. Furthermore, we explored the functions and corresponding mechanisms of ETV4 in LUAD. Upregulation of ETV4 in LUAD is indicated by online data and our results of qPCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry in collective tissue samples. ETV4 knockdown significantly inhibits proliferation and invasion in LUAD indicated by the outcomes of CCK8, plate clone formation, and Transwell invasion assays. Mechanistically, chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter system assays indicated that ETV4 could directly bind at the promoter of MSI2 and promote its transcription. Furthermore, ectopic expression MSI2 can rescue the inhibitory effects caused by ETV4 knockdown in LUAD. Therefore, we proved that upregulation of ETV4 could promote proliferation and invasion of LUAD by transcriptionally upregulating MSI2 offering a potential therapy treatment target of LUAD. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.