RAC2 acts as a prognostic biomarker and promotes the progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

As one of the most commonly reported malignancies of the urinary system, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is an advanced metastatic tumor with high mortality rates. The Rac family small GTPase 2 (RAC2) is a member of the Rho GTPases. Although Rho GTPases play an important role in numerous different types of tumor, whether they have functions in ccRCC remains uncertain. The present study utilized bioinformatics analyses in order to compare the expression levels of RAC2 in ccRCC tumors vs. adjacent tissues, and assessed the association between RAC2 expression and clinicopathological parameters. Furthermore, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry assays were performed to validate RAC2 expression levels in human ccRCC tissues and cell lines. Functional experiments were also conducted in order to identify the roles of RAC2 in vitro. The results revealed that RAC2 was upregulated in ccRCC tissues and cell lines. In addition, elevated expression levels of RAC2 were significantly associated with a poor overall survival (P=0.0061), higher Tumor-Node-Metastasis stage and worse G grade. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that high expression levels of RAC2 could be a diagnostic index for ccRCC (area under the curve, 0.9095; P<0.0001). Furthermore, knockdown of RAC2 in vitro attenuated the proliferation, migration and invasion of renal carcinoma cells. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that RAC2 may act as a promising prognostic and diagnostic biomarker of ccRCC, and could be considered as a potential therapeutic target for treating ccRCC.