Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2023; 29(40): 5593-5617
Published online Oct 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i40.5593
Advances and key focus areas in gastric cancer immunotherapy: A comprehensive scientometric and clinical trial review (1999-2023)
Yao-Nan Li, Bin Xie, Ying Zhang, Ming-Hua He, Yang Xing, Dong-Mei Mu, Hong Wang, Rui Guo
Yao-Nan Li, Rui Guo, Clinical Laboratory, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130012, Jilin Province, China
Bin Xie, Ying Zhang, Yang Xing, Hong Wang, Cancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130012, Jilin Province, China
Ming-Hua He, College of Computer Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, Jilin Province, China
Dong-Mei Mu, Division of Clinical Research, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130012, Jilin Province, China
Author contributions: Wang H and Guo R conceived the study and critically revised the manuscript; Li YN designed the study, performed statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; Xie B, Zhang Y, He MH, Mu DM, and Wang H designed the study and wrote the manuscript; Li YN, Guo R, and Wang H performed article retrieval and data interpretation; Mu DM conducted statistical assessment; and all the authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81500116 and 81601449; and Jilin Science and Technique, No. 20200201472JC and YDZJ202301ZYTS092.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rui Guo, MD, Associate Professor, Clinical Laboratory, The First Hospital of Jilin University, No. 1 Xinmin Street, Chaoyang District, Changchun 130012, Jilin Province, China. guoruijdyy@jlu.edu.cn
Received: August 28, 2023
Peer-review started: August 28, 2023
First decision: September 11, 2023
Revised: September 25, 2023
Accepted: October 17, 2023
Article in press: October 17, 2023
Published online: October 28, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) is the sixth most common cancer and third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Current treatments mainly rely on surgery- and chemotherapy-based systemic; however, the prognosis remains poor for advanced disease. Recent studies have suggested that immunotherapy has significant potential in cancer therapy; thus, GC immunotherapy may improve quality of life and survival for patients with this disease.

AIM

To provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research hotspots of GC immunotherapy.

METHODS

We conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications on immunotherapy related to GC in the Web of Science Core Collection database. We analyzed 2013 pub-lications from 1999 to February 1, 2023, using the VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. We assessed publication and citation distributions using the WoS platform and explored research countries, institutions, journals, authors, references, and keywords (co-occurrence, timeline view, and burst analysis). In addition, we examined 228 trials on immunotherapy, 137 on adoptive cell therapy, 274 on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), and 23 on vaccines from ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The Impact Index Per Article for the top ten high-cited papers collected from Reference Citation Analysis (RCA) are presented.

RESULTS

Our bibliometric analysis revealed that the study of immunotherapy in GC has developed rapidly in recent years. China accounted for almost half the publications, followed by the United States. The number of publications in recent years has been growing continuously, and most institutions and authors with the most publications are from China. The main keywords or clusters identified were “tumor microenvironment”, “adoptive immunotherapy”, “dendritic therapy”, and “microsatellite instability”.

CONCLUSION

Our analysis of 2013 publications indicated that immunotherapy for GC has led to several new developments in recent years. Considerable progress has been made in vaccinations, immune checkpoint therapy, and adoptive cellular therapy. In particular, ICIs and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells are novel options for the treatment of GC. We suggest that the combination of ICIs, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and other immunotherapies should be the primary research direction in the future.

Keywords: Immunotherapy, Gastric cancer, Clinical trials, Scientometric analysis, Visualization

Core Tip: In this study, we systematically analyzed studies related to immunotherapy for gastric cancer (GC). We used scientometrics to explore research hotspots in the field and summarize the current developmental status of GC immunotherapy, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of different immunotherapy modalities. We also compiled information on ongoing clinical trials and predicted future developmental trends in this field based on the direction and stage of these trials. This research can help advance our understanding of the latest progress and future development trends in the field, as well as provide scientific research recommendations.