YAP1 and cancer: As an approach to explore the molecular mechanisms resulting in tumor-associated YAP1 activation, we investigated the presence of genomic alterations in all human orthologs of Drosophila Hippo pathway components in a large panel of 38 distinct cancers sequenced by The Cancer Gene Atlas consortium (TCGA, 14729 neoplastic lesions, Supplementary Fig. 1a)9.