Context: Ras-associated binding 35 (RAB35) is an oncogenic, guanosine triphosphate (GTP)ase that plays a role in cancer invasion, metastasis, and immune evasion. However, systematic and comprehensive research to identify the importance of RAB35 in various cancer types is still absent.
Objective: The study intended to explore the potential value of RAB35 as a molecular biomarker.
Design: The research team performed a genetic evaluation of RAB35.
Setting: The study took place at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in Wenzhou, China.
Outcome measures: The research team assessed the expression of RAB35 in various tumor tissues and performed correlation analyses between RAB35 expression and prognosis, molecular subtypes, immunological subtypes, immune-associated cell infiltration, the tumor immune microenvironment, and drug sensitivity in pan-cancer.
Results: RAB35 exhibited significant differential expression for 21 cancer types. It demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing eight cancer types, showed distinct expression patterns in various molecular subtypes for six cancer types, and found different immune subtypes for eight cancer types. The abnormal expression of RAB35 was significantly related to overall survival (OS) for nine cancer types, progress free interval (PFI) for five cancer types, and disease-specific survival (DSS) for five cancer types. Its abnormal expression was closely associated with the immune microenvironment and multiple immune cells. Furthermore, it was related to the drug sensitivity for various drugs and might be associated with chemotherapy resistance.
Conclusions: RAB35 showed significant differential expression in various cancers and was significantly related to the prognosis of cancer patients, the immune microenvironment, multiple immune cells, drug sensitivity to various drugs, and chemotherapy resistance. It may serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for cancer treatment.