Collectively, our findings confirm that DAB2IP plays an important role in dampening oncogenic pathways in epithelial cells, including a previously unreported effect on YAP/TAZ, and suggest that DAB2IP may have a tumor-suppressive role in the early steps of metastasis, when alterations in tissue integrity and loosened cell–cell interactions can potentially reprogram cancer cells towards a fully invasive phenotype. Here, YAP1 is linked to cancer.