To explore the action of procaine on ovarian cancer cell oncogenic phenotypes and its molecular mechanism. Ovarian cancer cells were divided into control group, procaine low, medium and high dose group, microRNA-204 group, microRNA-NC group, high dose group+anti-microRNA-ovarian cancer group, high dose group+anti-microRNA-204 group; 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide, clone formation and transwell assays detected cell proliferation, migration and invasion, Western blotting and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detected protein and ribonucleic acid expression. Procaine treatment dose-dependently impaired the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial mesenchymal transition progression in ovarian cancer cells. Moreover, microRNA-204 levels were observed to be dose-dependently increased by procaine treatment. MicroRNA-204 overexpression suppressed the oncogenic phenotypes mentioned above in ovarian cancer cells. Importantly, the inhibition of microRNA-204 abolished the anticancer effects of procaine on ovarian cancer cells. In conclusion, procaine up-regulated microRNA-204 to ovarian cancer cell oncogenic phenotypes.