We identified an oncogene, FAL1, we measured the copy number of FAL1 in 99 cancer cell lines using qPCR and observed FAL1 copy-number gain in 46% of the cell lines. We then extracted the FAL1 RNA expression data from the aforementioned custom RNA array containing 40 cancer cell lines and found a significant and positive correlation between the genomic copy-number and RNA expression of FAL1. FAL1 associates with the epigenetic repressor BMI1 and regulates its stability in order to modulate the transcription of a number of genes including CDKN1A. The oncogenic activity of FAL1 is partially attributable to its repression of p21. FAL1-specific siRNAs significantly inhibit tumor growth in vivo.