Published online May 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i5.2200
Peer-review started: January 19, 2024
First decision: January 27, 2024
Revised: February 8, 2024
Accepted: March 11, 2024
Article in press: March 11, 2024
Published online: May 15, 2024
Processing time: 111 Days and 6.1 Hours
The absence of specific symptoms in patients with gastric cancer (GC) causes great difficulties in early diagnosis of the disease, therefore, it is very valuable to clarify the risk factors for early diagnosis and treatment of GC and to improve the survival of GC.
Researchers have conducted a large number of studies on risk factors in GC. However, a summary of the current state of research is lacking.
This study was conducted to enable physicians to keep abreast of the latest research evidence in the clinical field and to make increasingly informed decisions.
The articles covered in this study were obtained from the Web of Science database and the data were processed through CiteSpace and VOSviewer software.
A total of 2514 papers from 72 countries and 2507 research institutions were retrieved. China, National Cancer Center, and Shoichiro Tsugane were the most productive country, institution, or author, respectively. The research hotspots in the study of risk factors for GC are summarized in four areas, namely: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, single nucleotide polymorphism, bio-diagnostic markers, and GC risk prediction models.
A list of key risk factors for GC was also constructed, and we identified H. pylori infection, single-nucleotide polymorphism, smoking, diet, and alcohol as the most important risk factors for the development of GC, and proposed corresponding strategies for GC prevention.
GC risk prediction modeling is the latest research hotspot and will likely be the future direction of research in the field.