ABSTRACT
With the recent data showing that psoriasis patients are at higher risk for systemic malignancies, there is a growing awareness for the need to minimize cancer risks in psoriasis patients. Retinoids as a class of medication have been widely studied as potential agents for cancer chemoprevention. Since they act by inducing cell differentiation and maturation, they may help reverse the pathogenesis of malignancies. Through an extensive literature review, this paper provides an update on the available data on retinoids and their systemic anti-cancer properties. Retinoid appear to be beneficial in the prevention of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, acute promyelocytic leukemia, head and neck cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer and neuroblastoma. So far the data does not support anti-cancer efficacy of retinoids in the prevention of prostate or pancreatic cancer and may possibly have harmful effects in the pathogenesis of lung cancer in smokers.