Table 2.

Rab proteins involved in cancer.

Rab Protein	Rab Alterations Associated with Cancer	References
Rab5	Overexpressed, promotes invasion by influencing FAK signaling and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) pathway; required for hypoxia-driven tumor cell migration, invasion, and metastasis	[150,151,152,153]
Rab11	Hypoxia promotes Rab11-mediated trafficking of α6β4 integrin to the cell surface contributing to tumor cell invasion	[14]
Rab39a	Overexpressed; genetic amplification of RAB39A-RXRB	[154]
Rab1a	Overexpressed; promotes oncogenic growth by activating mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling	[21,155]
Rab35	Somatic mutations; regulates endocytosis and recycling, contributing to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase B (AKT) activation and promoting cell survival	[22]
Rab25	Altered expression: overexpression enhances cell migration and invasiveness by regulating α5β1 integrin trafficking. Downregulation possibly influences multiple pathways	[15,156,157,158,159]
Rab40b	Overexpressed, mediates secretion of MMP2/9 thus promoting cancer invasion and metastasis	[160,161]
Rab2a	Overexpressed; regulates the transport of membrane type 1 metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) and E-cadherin and promotes invasion	[17]
Rab22a	Overexpressed, involved in hypoxia-driven tumor migration, invasion and metastasis	[162]
Rab23	Altered expression: overexpression induces cell migration, invasion and proliferation by modulating Rac1 activity. Downregulation possibly affects the hedgehog signaling pathway	[163,164,165,166,167,168,169]