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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1525280
This article is part of the Research Topic Impact of the Inflammatory Microenvironment on Immune Infiltration in Colorectal and Liver Cancers: Insights for New Immunotherapeutic Strategies View all articles

Research hotspots and frontiers in the tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancer: a bibliometric study from 2014 to 2024

Provisionally accepted
Xinran He Xinran He 1Tingyi Xie Tingyi Xie 1Li Shi Li Shi 1*Xuyi Kuang Xuyi Kuang 1*Li Lei Li Lei 1Xingyu Shang Xingyu Shang 1*Bo Fu Bo Fu 2*
  • 1 The Fourth Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
  • 2 Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Shenzhen ，Guangdong, China

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

    Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths globally, which poses a heavy burden on our healthcare and economy. In recent years, increasing researches suggest that the tumor microenvironment (TME) influences cancer onset, progression, metastasis, and treatment. This has become a popular direction for researching and attacking cancer. However, to date, there is no bibliometric analysis of colorectal cancer and tumor microenvironment from 2014 to 2024. This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the current research status, hotspots, and future trends in this field from a bibliometric perspective.Methods: In this study, the publications about colorectal cancer and tumor microenvironment from 2014 to 2024 were searched based on the Web of Science Core Collection database. Then we analyzed and visualized the data using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, bibliometrix package, and Microsoft Excel 2019.Results: A total of 748 publications were included in our study, and the number of publications entered a period of rapid growth after 2019. China and the United States are the major research and collaboration centers in this field. Elkord, Eyad is the most prolific author, and Frontiers in Immunology is the journal that published the most papers on the TME of CRC. In addition, keyword and cluster analysis showed that immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer-associated fibroblasts, macrophage polarization, intestinal microbiota, colorectal cancer liver metastasis, drug resistance, scRNA-seq, etc. may be the research hotspots and trends in this field.Conclusions: Colorectal cancer and tumor microenvironment research is in the developmental stage, and strengthening international cooperation can help to drive this field forward. The main components and signaling in TME, CRC immunotherapy, colorectal cancer liver metastasis, and new research techniques are the hot research directions in this domain. Our findings will provide scholars with an up-to-date perspective on the current state of research, hotspots, and future trends in this field.

    Keywords: Colorectal cancer1, the tumor microenvironment2, Bibliometric analysis3, hotspots4, WoSCC5

    Received: 09 Nov 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 He, Xie, Shi, Kuang, Lei, Shang and Fu. 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:
    Li Shi, The Fourth Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
    Xuyi Kuang, The Fourth Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
    Xingyu Shang, The Fourth Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China
    Bo Fu, Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Shenzhen ，Guangdong, 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.