Working Paper Cnr-Ceris, N° 01/2012

 Path-breaking innovations for lung cancer: a revolution in clinical practice

Coccia Mario
CNR - National Research Council of Italy
& GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract:  Lung cancer is one of main cause of death worldwide and traditional chemotherapy agents have reached the maturity phase in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolutionary growth of knowledge patterns of vital radical innovations to treat lung cancer, driven by new technological paradigm of the targeted therapy, that have generating a revolution in clinical practice, increasing the overall survival of patients and quality of life. This new scientific pathway has evolving with an allometric process that involves a disproportionate growth of targeted therapy in relation to standard platinum-based chemotherapy alone.

 Keywords: Radial Innovation; Technological Paradigm; Clinical Practice; Molecular Biology; Lung Cancer; Targeted therapy

JEL Codes: O33; I1; L65

I would like to thank Ugo Finardi (University of Torino, Italy) for kindly acquisition of data and Vittorio Valli (University of Torino) for fruitful suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

download