Considering the well-established link between H2A.Z isoforms and different types of cancer (Dryhurst et al., 2012; Vardabasso et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2016), further characterization of the role of H2A.Z isoforms in heterochromatin should provide valuable evidence to understand the molecular basis of the onset of some of these cancers. This evidence concerns the gene H2AZ1 and cancer.