Question: Are CTCF and BORIS involved in genome regulation and cancer?

Context:
CTCF is ubiquitously expressed and plays diverse roles in gene regulation, imprinting, insulation, intra/interchromosomal interactions, nuclear compartmentalisation, and alternative splicing. CTCF has a single paralogue, the testes-specific CTCF-like gene (CTCFL)/BORIS. CTCF and BORIS can be deregulated in cancer. The tumour suppressor gene CTCF can be mutated or deleted in cancer, or CTCF DNA binding can be altered by epigenetic changes. BORIS is aberrantly expressed frequently in cancer, leading some to propose a pro-tumourigenic role for BORIS. However, BORIS can inhibit cell proliferation, and is mutated in cancer similarly to CTCF suggesting BORIS activation in cancer may be due to global genetic or epigenetic changes typical of malignant transformation
 The investigation of the molecular mechanisms engaged by CTCF to modulate tumor-related genes emphasizes the cell-type dependency of its tumor suppressor role. Indeed, the ability of CTCF to bind their promoters strictly depends by cell-type features as DNA methylation, BORIS-binding and post-translational modifications as PARYlation
Moreover, reduction of CTCF in normally BORIS-negative human fibroblasts resulted in derepression of BORIS promoters. These results provide a mechanistic basis for understanding cancer-related associations between haploinsufficiency of CTCF and BORIS derepression, and between the lack of functional p53 and aberrant activation of BORIS
CTCF and BORIS in genome regulation and cancer.
The novel BORIS + CTCF gene family is uniquely involved in the epigenetics of normal biology and cancer.
Collectively, these data indicate that reciprocal binding of CTCF and BORIS to the NY-ESO-1 promoter mediates epigenetic regulation of this CT gene in lung cancer cells, and suggest that induction of BORIS may be a novel strategy to augment immunogenicity of pulmonary carcinomas.
BORIS is the only known paralog of CTCF, a gene intimately involved in genomic imprinting, chromatin insulation, and nuclear regulation.
However, BORIS can inhibit cell proliferation, and is mutated in cancer similarly to CTCF suggesting BORIS activation in cancer may be due to global genetic or epigenetic changes typical of malignant transformation.
We suggest that BORIS is likely tethering epigenetic machinery to a novel class of CTCF/BORIS 11ZF target sequences that mediate induction of cancer-testis genes.
Unlike CTCF, BORIS expression has been reported only in the testis and certain malignancies, leading to its classification as a "cancer-testis" antigen.

Answer: Yes. CTCF is ubiquitously expressed and plays diverse roles in gene regulation, imprinting, insulation, intra/interchromosomal interactions, nuclear compartmentalisation, and alternative splicing. CTCF has a single paralogue, the testes-specific CTCF-like gene (CTCFL)/BORIS. CTCF and BORIS can be deregulated in cancer. The tumour suppressor gene CTCF can be mutated or deleted in cancer, or CTCF DNA binding can be altered by epigenetic changes. BORIS is aberrantly expressed frequently in cancer, leading some to propose a pro-tumourigenic role for BORIS. However, BORIS can inhibit cell proliferation, and is mutated in cancer similarly to CTCF suggesting BORIS activation in cancer may be due to global genetic or epigenetic changes typical of malignant transformation.
Exact answer: yes