Research landscape and trends of lung cancer radiotherapy: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Backgroundradiotherapy is one of the major treatments for lung cancer and has been a hot research area for years. This bibliometric analysis aims to present the research trends on lung cancer radiotherapy.MethodOn August 31, 2022, the authors identified 9868 articles on lung cancer radiotherapy by the Web of Science (Science Citation Indexing Expanded database) and extracted their general information and the total number of citations. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to present the research landscape, demonstrate the research trends, and determine the most cited papers (top-papers) as well as top-journals on lung cancer radiotherapy. After that, the authors analyzed the recent research hotspots based on the latest publications in top-journals.ResultsThese 9868 papers were cited a total of 268,068 times. “Durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy in stage III non–small-cell lung cancer” published in 2017 by Antonia et al.was the most cited article (2110 citations). Among the journals, New England Journal of Medicine was most influential. Moreover, J. Clin. Oncol. and Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. was both influential and productive. Corresponding authors represented the USA (2610 articles) and China mainland (2060 articles) took part in most publications and articles with corresponding authors from Netherlands were most cited (46.12 citations per paper). Chemoradiotherapy was the hottest research area, and stereotactic body radiotherapy has become a research hotspot since 2006. Radiotherapy plus immunotherapy has been highly focused since 2019.ConclusionsThis bibliometric analysis comprehensively and quantitatively presents the research trends and hotspots based on 9868 relevant articles, and further suggests future research directions. The researchers can benefit in selecting journals and in finding potential collaborators. This study can help researchers gain a comprehensive picture of the research landscape, historical development, and recent hotspots in lung cancer radiotherapy and can provide inspiration for future research.

The dynamic duo: A narrative review on the synergy between stereotactic body radiotherapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer treatment (Review)

“…A major issue with chemo-RT is its toxicity associated with dose escalation, which severely limits its tumoricidal effect ( 33 , 71 ). This is best demonstrated by the result of RTOG 0617, which showed that the 74 Gy arm has shorter survival compared to the 60 Gy arm (20 vs. 29 months) due to increased toxicity and no benefit to the local control (LC) rate ( 33 , 71 ), so the trial had to be terminated early, and since then, the research focus has shifted to the optimization of chemo-RT. After ICI and SBRT each showing a survival benefit and tolerable toxicity profile when added to existing CCRT, the idea of a ‘quad-modality’ approach to LA-NSCLC treatment was proposed ( 33 , 72 , 73 ).…”

Global research landscape and trends of cancer radiotherapy plus immunotherapy: A bibliometric analysis

“…This method involves quantitative analysis of knowledge-based data derived from various sources, providing an objective overview of the research landscape, emerging trends, and hot topics within a specific area of study [ 21 ]. In doing so, bibliometric analysis offers a unique and comprehensive perspective that can assist researchers in understanding the progress in their field, as well as guide them in defining their own research paths [ 22 ]. Moreover, the information derived from a bibliometric analysis can be invaluable in helping researchers identify potential collaborators or suitable journals for publication.…”

Non-small cell lung cancer and metabolism research from 2013 to 2023: a visual analysis and bibliometric study

“…Despite some methodological limitations, the approach is used to visually quantify academic achievements and their impact in many fields. To date, several bibliometric studies related to LC have been published, mainly on immunotherapy ( 15 , 16 ), radiotherapy ( 17 ), gut microbiota ( 18 ), postoperative analgesia ( 19 ), anti-programmed death-1/programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) therapy ( 20 ), machine learning in NSCLC radiotherapy ( 21 ), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( 22 ). However, no bibliometric studies have been published in the NSCLC-Met field.…”