Vitamin A analogs in skin disease.

Although large doses of oral retinoids produce marked toxic effects in some circumstances, it appears there may be a potential for the use of synthetic retinoids in cancer prevention and therapy in addition to the profoundly important benefits shown thus far in a variety of dermatological conditions. Furthermore, the wide diversity of retinoid effects on cell systems suggests that other, nondermatological, diseases may eventually be found to respond to this new class of therapeutic agents. This is to be expected particularly if newer retinoids show new tissue specificities. As was true of steroids in 1950, the potential of retinoids in 1982 is only partly visible, but very exciting.