The First International Conference on "The Biology of Cutaneous Cancer" was held in Philadelphia in April, 1962, under the joint sponsorship of The Skin and Cancer Hospital of Philadelphia and the Committee of Geographic Pathology of the International Union Against Cancer. Fifty-six scientists from 20 countries representing the specialties of dermatology, pathology, oncology, epidemiology, virology, biochemistry, comparative anatomy, radiobiology, and electron microscopy presented 48 papers and participated in the discussions.
It is neither practical nor necessary to discuss each of the papers presented in detail, since they will be published as Monograph No. 10 of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In this report, therefore, only the major findings of the conference will be reviewed.
The first section was designed to review basic knowledge of Anatomy and Function of the Skin. Breedis (University of Pennsylvania) reported on his experiments with differentiation of skin layers, pointing out that regional specialization