In particular, recent evidence demonstrates that the mechanosensitive transcription factors YAP and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ; also known as WWTR1), which regulate both cancer cell progression and stem cell differentiation, also contribute to body axis patterning (Porazinski et al., 2015) and angiogenesis (Choi et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene WWTR1 and cancer.