Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) plays an important role in promoting the invasion and metastasis of a range of cancer cells. However, there are no reports of the expression and function of SLPI in oral carcinoma cells. In this study, the oral carcinoma cell line KB was used to determine whether SLPI affects the proliferation, migration and invasion of oral carcinoma cells. RT-PCR and Western blotting revealed high levels of endogenous SLPI expression in KB cells as well as a strong increase in SLPI secretion after wounding compared to immortalized normal oral keratinocytes (INOK). The wound healing assay revealed more migration of KB cells than INOK cells, and the SLPI treatment increased the migration of KB cells. KB cell proliferation was increased significantly by the SLPI protein but decreased by SLPI-siRNA. SLPI strongly increased the migration and invasion of KB cells. On the other hand, SLPI-siRNA decreased the migration and invasion of KB cells. This suggests that SLPI plays an important role in the metastasis of oral carcinoma cells.