Research Hotspots and Trends in Global Cancer immunometabolism:A Bibliometric Analysis from 2000 to 2023

Abstract

Shupeng Chen,1 Jie Liu,1 Guilian He,1 Nana Tang,2 Yingjian Zeng2 1School of Clinical Medicine, Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, 330004, People’s Republic of China; 2Hematology Department, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330006, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yingjian Zeng, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated Hospital, Hematology Department, Nanchang, 330006, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Cancer poses a major global health challenge, and immunotherapy, known as the third revolution in cancer treatment, has brought new hope to patients. The emerging field of immunometabolism has further enhanced the safety and efficacy of immunotherapy. Over the past two decades, this field has rapidly evolved in oncology, leading to numerous significant findings. This review systematically examines the literature on immunometabolism in cancer, visualizing research trends and identifying future directions.Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases, covering publications from January 2000 to December 2023. We employed tools like Citespace, VOSviewer, and RStudio for visual analysis of publication trends, regional contributions, institutions, authors, journals, and keywords.Results: A total of 3320 articles were published by 8090 authors across 1738 institutions, involving 71 countries. Leading contributors were China (n=469), the United States (n=361), and Germany (n=82). Harvard University was the most influential institution, while Frontiers in Immunology had the highest number of publications. The top research areas included glucose, lipid, and amino acid metabolism, the tumor microenvironment, and immune cell regulation.Conclusion: International collaboration and interdisciplinary efforts are advancing the field of cancer immunometabolism. Future research will likely focus on the interplay between metabolism and immunity, metabolic markers, immune cell reprogramming, and tumor-immune metabolic competition.Keywords: immunity, metabolism, tumor, metabolic reprogramming, immune evasion, bibliometrics

Keywords

• immunity
• metabolism
• tumor
• metabolic reprogramming
• immune evasion
• bibliometrics