Exploring Technology Frontiers for Neuroblastoma Treatment from Perspective of Patent Citation Network

Abstract

Objective To explore the technology frontiers for neuroblastoma treatment from the perspective of patent citation network. Methods Through patent analysis for neuroblastoma treatment, highly cited patents and highly cited papers in the citation network were taken as the research objects. The title and abstract of the citing patents were analyzed by text clustering to identify the technology frontiers. Through social network analysis, the core patents were identified from the indices of degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. Results A total of 6240 patent applications for neuroblastoma treatment were found, including 71304 patent citations and 88698 journal-article citations. Four technology frontiers were identified based on patent citation network, namely, drug target, drug design, tumor-indication expansion, and gene-expression regulation. Three technology frontiers were identified based on journal-article citation network. They were drug target, drug design, and tumor-indication expansion. Conclusion The development of technology for neuroblastoma treatment continues to be active. Drug target and drug design are the most important technology frontiers. This study could provide certain reference for neuroblastoma treatment from the perspective of information science.

Keywords

• neuroblastoma
• patent citation network
• social network analysis
• technology frontiers
• core patent