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Pronunciation: eye-so-TRET-in-oyn
Background Isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid) belongs to a family of related natural and synthetic compounds called retinoids that have critically important effects on biologic systems including embryogenesis, carcinogenesis, and growth and differentiation. The U.S. FDA approved isotretinoin in June 1982 for the treatment of severe, recalcitrant, nodulocystic acne in patients 12 and older. By April 2001, an estimated 12 million patients worldwide and 5 million patients in the U.S. had used isotretinoin. Current indications for isotretinoin also include milder forms of acne unresponsive to conventional therapy, disorders of cornification, chemoprevention of nonmelanoma skin cancer in susceptible individuals…