promotes cancer proliferation and metastasis in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is a type of gynecological cancer with the highest mortality rate worldwide. Due to a lack of effective screening methods, most cases are diagnosed at later stages where the survival rates are poor. Thus, it is termed a 'silent killer' and is the most lethal of all the malignancies in women. IQ motif containing GTPase Activating Protein 3 () is a member of the Rho family of GTPases, and plays a crucial role in the development and progression of several types of cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the oncogenic functions and mechanisms of on the proliferation and metastasis of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Therefore, the expression levels of in HGSOC and normal tissue samples were compared, and knockdown was performed to examine its functional role using various and experiments. It was demonstrated that the expression of was upregulated in HGSOC tissues compared with the healthy tissues; this differential expression was also observed in the ovarian cancer cell lines. Functional experimental results suggested that silencing significantly reduced proliferation, migration and invasion in ovarian cancer cell lines. Moreover, experimental findings validated the results, where the tumorigenic and metastatic capacities of -silenced cells were significantly lower in the nude mice compared with the mice implanted with the control cells. Furthermore, knockdown of resulted in increased apoptosis, and the effects of expression on various epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers were identified, suggesting a possible mechanism associated with the role of in metastasis. The effect of silencing on chemosensitivity towards olaparib was also assessed. Collectively, the present results indicated that is a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker, and a putative therapeutic target of HGSOC.