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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1428018
This article is part of the Research Topic Crosstalk between Lung Cancer and Fibrosis: Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Strategies View all articles

Research trends in lung cancer and the tumor microenvironment: A bibliometric analysis of studies published from 2014 to 2023

Provisionally accepted
Zhilan Huang Zhilan Huang 1Tingyi Xie Tingyi Xie 1Wei Xie Wei Xie 2*Zhuni Chen Zhuni Chen 2Zhiyuan Wen Zhiyuan Wen 1Lin Yang Lin Yang 1
  • 1 The Fourth Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
  • 2 Shenzhen Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, which seriously threatens human life and health as well as brings a heavy burden to the society. In recent years, the tumor microenvironment (TME) has become an emerging research field and hotspot affecting tumor pathogenesis and therapeutic approaches. However, to date, there has been no bibliometric analysis of lung cancer and the tumor microenvironment from 2014 to 2023.This study aims to comprehensively summarize the current situation and development trends in the field from a bibliometric perspective.Methods: The publications about lung cancer and the tumor microenvironment from 2014 to 2023 were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The Microsoft Excel, Origin, R-bibliometrix, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer software are comprehensively used to scientifically analyze the data.Results: Totally, 763 publications were identified in this study. A rapid increase in the number of publications was observed after 2018. More than 400 organizations published these publications in 36 countries or regions. China and the United States have significant influence in this field. Zhou, CC and Frontiers in Immunology are the most productive authors and journals respectively. Besides, the most frequently cited references were those on lung cancer pathogenesis, clinical trials, and treatment modalities. It suggests that novel lung cancer treatment models mainly based on the TME components, such as cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) may lead to future research trends.Conclusions: The field of lung cancer and the tumor microenvironment research is still in the beginning stages. Gene expression, molecular pathways, therapeutic modalities, and novel detection technologies in this field have been widely studied by researchers. This is the first bibliometric study to comprehensively summarize the research trend and development regarding lung cancer and tumor microenvironment over the last decade. The result of our research provides the updated perspective for scholars to understand the key information and cutting-edge hotspots in this field, as well as to identify future research directions.

    Keywords: Lung cancer1, the tumor microenvironment (TME)2, bibliometric3, visualized analysis4, trend5

    Received: 05 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Xie, Xie, Chen, Wen and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wei Xie, Shenzhen Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.