From one clinic to a community.
The Society of Cutaneous Oncology began as a local multidisciplinary academic meeting in Boston. An unexpected move online widened the circle, and over time the group evolved into a broader scientific community built around critical discussion, collaborative research, and shared inquiry.
A history shaped by conversation
The format has changed—from an in-person conference room, to Zoom, to a multi-institutional scientific community—but the central idea has remained remarkably consistent: bring people together, examine the evidence carefully, and make the discussion useful.
The first meeting
The group began as an in-person multidisciplinary academic program bringing together clinicians and investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass Eye and Ear around the management of non-melanoma skin cancers.
The opening Journal Club established the model that would continue to define the group: start with a clinically important paper, then interrogate what the evidence does—and does not—support.
The last in-person meeting
What had started as a recurring face-to-face academic meeting held its final in-person session just before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted clinical, academic, and professional life worldwide.
The interruption changed the format—and ultimately the reach.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. The move away from in-person meetings was initially a necessity. It soon became an opportunity: geography no longer had to define who could join the conversation.
The group returns—online
Two months after the final in-person meeting, the program restarted on Zoom. The virtual format made it possible to invite colleagues beyond Boston and began the transition from a local institutional meeting toward a distributed academic community.
The Journal of Cutaneous Oncology begins publishing
As the academic community grew, its scientific conversations gained a durable home. The Journal of Cutaneous Oncology (JoCO) began publishing as an open-access journal dedicated to skin cancer, evidence interpretation, scientific perspective, and thoughtful discussion.
The Journal emerged during the transition from the earlier cutaneous oncology interest group toward what would soon become the Society of Cutaneous Oncology.
The Society of Cutaneous Oncology
The expanding community was formally reintroduced as the Society of Cutaneous Oncology (SoCO). The new name reflected what the group had become: multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and centered on the broader field of cutaneous oncology rather than any single institution or disease.
The first Research Forum
SoCO added a second kind of scientific conversation. Rather than beginning with a published paper, the Research Forum created a place to discuss ideas still in development—study concepts, methods, unanswered questions, and opportunities for collaboration.
The first joint academic–industry scientific session
SoCO held its first collaborative academic–industry meeting with Bristol Myers Squibb. The format extended the same principles used in Journal Club—open scientific discussion, careful evidence interpretation, and constructive critique—to a session that included both academic and industry participants.
The next chapter is being written in public.
Today, SoCO brings together Journal Club, Research Forum, collaborative scientific projects, and the Journal of Cutaneous Oncology. What began as a local meeting now has both a living scientific community and a durable publishing platform. Its structure remains intentionally lightweight: the community grows through participation, and the scientific record grows through the meetings, methods, discussions, publications, and collaborations that follow.
Historical meeting dates reflect the Society’s internal program record. Publication details are linked to the original articles. COVID-19 pandemic context reflects the World Health Organization’s March 11, 2020 declaration.