FeatureTargeting Rabs as a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer therapy

•Rabs are dysregulated in human cancers.•Rabs regulate cell signaling pathways in cancer.•Rabs regulate the secretory pathway in cancer.•Rabs are novel therapeutic targets.

Rab GTPases constitute the largest family of small GTPases. Rabs regulate not only membrane trafficking but also cell signaling, growth and survival, and development. Increasingly, Rabs and their effectors are shown to be overexpressed or subject to loss-of-function mutations in a variety of disease settings, including cancer progression. This review provides an overview of dysregulated Rab proteins in cancer, and highlights the signaling and secretory pathways in which they operate, with the aim of identifying potential avenues for therapeutic intervention. Recent progress and perspectives for direct and/or indirect targeting of Rabs are also summarized.