Role of RHOC in evaluating an adverse prognosis in patients with glioma and its potential prognostic value

In recent years, major discoveries have indicated that Ras homology family member C (RHOC) is involved in the occurrence and pathological progression of a number of malignant tumours; nevertheless, the role served by RHOC in glioma remains unclear. The present study aimed to gain further insight into the biological function and expression of RHOC in human glioma based on the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA). The current study analysed ~1,000 glioma samples from the CGGA. First, RHOC expression was analysed according to the clinical features associated with the prognosis of glioma, such as clinical stage, histological type and age. Second, the Kaplan-Meier method was used, revealing that the survival rate of patients with glioma with high RHOC expression was significantly lower than that of patients with low RHOC expression. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that RHOC had moderate diagnostic value for patients with glioma. Gene set enrichment analysis indirectly indicated that RHOC mainly participated in the pathological mechanism of glioma through p53, extracellular matrix receptor interaction and focal adhesion. Finally, the aforementioned results were further verified using The Cancer Genome Atlas data and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR technology. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first comprehensive in-depth analysis of RHOC, revealing the potential value of RHOC as a novel oncogene in glioma. The current study provided a novel potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of glioma, and re-examined the pathological mechanism of glioma from a new perspective.