Path-breaking directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and molecular cancer therapy

Mario Coccia and Lili Wang ()

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2015, vol. 94, issue C, 155-169

Abstract: A fundamental question in the field of technological forecasting and foresight is how to detect likely fruitful technological trajectories in new research fields, such as nanomedicine. We confront this question by developing an approach based on trends and networks of vital variables, analyzed by bibliometrics, which endeavours to detect fruitful trajectories of nanotechnology applied to ground-breaking anti-cancer treatments. Results tend to show two main technological waves of cancer treatments by nanotechnology applications. The early technological wave in the early 2000s was embodied in some types of chemotherapy agents with a broad spectrum of application, while after 2006 the second technological wave appeared with new applications of chemotherapy agents and molecular target therapy by nanotechnology. The present study shows new directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and molecular cancer therapy in new treatments for breast, lung, brain and colon cancers. A main finding of this study is the recognition that, since the late 2000s, the sharp increase of several technological trajectories of anticancer drugs applied by nanotechnology seems to be driven by high rates of mortality of some types of cancers (e.g. pancreatic and brain) in order to find more effective anticancer therapies that increase the progression-free survival of patients: the so-called technological trajectories mortality driven. The study also points out that global research leaders tend to specialize in anticancer drugs, via nanotechnology, for specific cancers (e.g. Switzerland in prostate cancer, Japan in colon cancer, China in ovarian cancer and Greece in pancreatic cancer). These ground-breaking technological trajectories are paving new directions in biomedicine and generating a revolution in clinical practice that may lead to more effective anticancer treatments in the not-too-distant future.

Keywords: Nanotechnology; Nanoscience; Biomedicine; Nanomedicine; Target therapy; Radical innovation; Chemotherapy; Cancer; Bibliometrics; Publications; Technological trajectories; Technological paradigm; Mortality driven (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C53 C89 I10 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Working Paper: Path-breaking directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and molecular cancer therapy (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:94:y:2015:i:c:p:155-169

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2014.09.007

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