Cutaneous oncology 1950-1975.

Sociopolitical and economic climates between 1950 and 1975 favored the funding of cancer research, attracted imaginative policy makers, encouraged investigators, and generated new knowledge for clinical application. Important advances during this period include the discovery that DNA alteration is requisite for carcinogenesis and that DNA repair processes are important deterrents in the development of cancer. The better understanding of the histogenesis of epidermal cancer and melanoma has potential clinical value. More easily grasped is the progress made in the therapeutic control of mycosis fungoides and epidermal cancer. Complete control of epidermal cancer is now a foreseeable reality.