The hidden hand

The acne cream that cures blood cancer

Tretinoin, the molecule in Retin-A for teenage skin, is identical to ATRA, the leukemia drug that transformed a death sentence into a survivable disease.

The number

90% complete remission rate in APL

Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers making tretinoin for acne are producing the same molecule that, when discovered as ATRA in 1988, shifted acute promyelocytic leukemia from near-universal fatality to one of oncology's most dramatic reversals. A single API bridges cosmetic dermatology and hematologic cure.

Source: The History of ATRA in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia -- PMC · PubMed Central / National Institutes of Health · Jan 1, 2013

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