High Rab25 expression associates with Ki67/TP53/CD133/VEGFR expression predicts poor prognosis in gastric cancer

Rab25 belongs to Rab GTPases which regulating vesicle trafficking of various extracellular and intracellular resources. Aberrant high Rab25 expression is closely linked to cancer development including gastric cancer. However, the underlying mechanism of Ras25 in gastric cancer is still unclear. In this study, we determined to investigate the potential association between Rab25 and four tumor markers, including Ki67 (a well-known hallmarker of tumor proliferation), TP53 (tumor p53, a master tumor regulator associated with cell apoptosis), CD133 (a common cancer stem cell marker) and VEGFR (Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, an efficient therapy target for gastric cancer). The results indicated that Rab25 expression in both cytoplasm and nucleus was significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than para-carcinoma tissues. High Rab25 nucleus expression was positively associated with distant metastasis (M stage) and clinical (cTNM) stage, while Rab25 nucleus expression correlated with M stage, cTNM stage and regional lymph metastasis stage (N stage). Survival analysis revealed that high Rab25 cytoplasm/nucleus expression predicted shorter overall survival time of patients with gastric cancer. Rab25 expression was significantly associated with Ki67 expression, TP53 expression, CD133 expressionand VEGFR expression in gastric cancer. In conclusion, our results indicated that Rab25 behaved as an oncogene in gastric cancer related to Ki67/TP53/CD133/VEGFR expression and suggested Rab25 to be a prognostic marker.