Yuan Z, Wang JH, Cui H, Wang SY, Wei B, Cui JX. Mapping the landscape of gastric cancer immunotherapy: Bibliometric insights into advances and hotspots. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(3): 100997 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i3.100997]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jian-Xin Cui, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of General Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. cuijx_doctor@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Scientometrics
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2025; 17(3): 100997 Published online Mar 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i3.100997
Mapping the landscape of gastric cancer immunotherapy: Bibliometric insights into advances and hotspots
Zhen Yuan, Jing-Hang Wang, Hao Cui, Shu-Yuan Wang, Bo Wei, Jian-Xin Cui
Zhen Yuan, Jing-Hang Wang, Hao Cui, Shu-Yuan Wang, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Zhen Yuan, Jing-Hang Wang, Hao Cui, Bo Wei, Jian-Xin Cui, Department of General Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Co-first authors: Zhen Yuan and Jing-Hang Wang.
Co-corresponding authors: Bo Wei and Jian-Xin Cui.
Author contributions: Yuan Z and Wang JH contribute equally to this study as co-first authors; Wei B and Cui JX contribute equally to this study as co-corresponding authors; Yuan Z contributed to design of the study, data analysis and design; Wang JH contributed to data collection, figure revision and draft manuscript; Cui H and Wang SY contributed to make significant revisions to the thesis; Wei B and Cui JX contributed to fund and approval of the final version of the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82073192 and No. 82273231; Beijing Science and Technology Program, No. Z221100007422125; and The Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital Medical Engineering Laboratory Project, No. 2022SYSZZKY16.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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: Jian-Xin Cui, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of General Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. cuijx_doctor@163.com
Received: September 1, 2024 Revised: December 11, 2024 Accepted: December 31, 2024 Published online: March 15, 2025 Processing time: 165 Days and 21.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Immunotherapy has surfaced as a promising therapeutic modality for gastric cancer (GC). A comprehensive review of advancements, current status, and research trends in GC immunotherapy is essential to inform future investigative efforts.
AIM
To delineate the trends, advancements, and focal points in immunotherapy for GC.
METHODS
We performed a bibliometric analysis of 2906 articles in English concerning GC immunotherapy published from 2000 to December 20, 2023, indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. Data analysis and visualization were facilitated by CiteSpace (6.1.6R), VOSviewer v.1.6.17, and GraphPad Prism v8.0.2.
RESULTS
There has been an increase in the annual publication rate of GC immunotherapy research. China leads in publication volume, while the United States demonstrates the highest citation impact. Fudan University is notable for its citation frequency and publication output. Co-citation analysis and keyword frequency revealed and highlighted a focus on GC prognosis, the tumor microenvironment (TME), and integrative immunotherapy with targeted therapy. Emerging research areas include gastroesophageal junction cancer, adoptive immunotherapy, and the role of Treg cell in immunotherapy.
CONCLUSION
GC immunotherapy research is an expanding field attracting considerable scientific interest. With the clinical adoption of immunotherapy in GC, the primary goals are to enhance treatment efficacy and patient outcomes. Unlike hematological malignancies, GC's solid TME presents distinct immunological challenges that may attenuate the cytotoxic effects of immune cells on cancer cells. For instance, although CAR-T therapy is effective in hematological malignancies, it has underperformed in GC settings. Current research is centered on overcoming immunosuppression within the TME, with a focus on combinations of targeted therapy, adoptive immunotherapy, Treg cell dynamics, and precise prognosis prediction in immunotherapy. Additionally, immunotherapy's role in treating gastroesophageal junction cancer has become a novel research focus.
Core Tip: This study employs bibliometric analysis to systematically elucidate the landscape of gastric cancer (GC) immunotherapy literature. Immunotherapy for GC has become a prominent research area, consistently attracting scientific scrutiny. Principal research topics include the prognostic evaluation of immunotherapy, immune microenvironment dynamics, synergistic strategies with targeted therapy, adoptive immunotherapy strategies, and the immunological treatment of gastroesophageal junction cancer. These topics continue to be at the forefront of current research initiatives.
