Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Feb 24, 2025; 16(2): 101611
Published online Feb 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i2.101611
Correlation between gut microbiota and tumor immune microenvironment: A bibliometric and visualized study
Zheng-Jun Hu, Hui-Rong Zhu, Yong-Jie Jin, Pan Liu, Xiao-Wei Yu, Yu-Ren Zhang
Zheng-Jun Hu, Yong-Jie Jin, Xiao-Wei Yu, Department of Oncology, Shanghai Jiading District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200000, China
Hui-Rong Zhu, Yu-Ren Zhang, Department of Oncology, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200000, China
Pan Liu, School of Chinese Medicine, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China
Co-first authors: Zheng-Jun Hu and Hui-Rong Zhu.
Co-corresponding authors: Yu-Ren Zhang and Xiao-Wei Yu.
Author contributions: Hu ZJ and Yu XW conceptualized and designed this study, while Zhang YR and Hu ZJ searched for relevant literature from web databases. Zhu HR conducted bibliometric analysis and used CiteSpace (6.2R6), VOSvivewer (1.6.20), and bibliometrics (based on R 4.3.2) to create visual maps of published literature including countries, institutions, authors, keywords, and references. Hu ZJ proposed a research direction and wrote a preliminary manuscript. Hu ZJ, Yu XW and Jin YJ jointly wrote the paper. Liu P checked and revised the grammar and references of the manuscript. Zhu HR and Yu XW provided funding for this research project. Hu ZJ and Zhu HR have made crucial and indispensable contributions to the completion of the project and are therefore eligible to be co-first authors of the paper. Zhang YR guided and supervised the overall process of this research project, revised and submitted early versions of the manuscript with focus on the regulatory effect of gut microbiota on immune checkpoint inhibitors. Yu XW screened the retrieved literature and conducted in-depth discussions on the data results with a focus on the effects of specific gut microbiota and derivatives on immune cell behavior in the tumor microenvironment. The collaboration between Zhang YR and Yu XW is crucial for the publication of this manuscript.
Supported by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Project, No. 21010504300; and Shanghai Jiading District Traditional Chinese Medicine Key Specialty Construction Project, No. 2020-JDZYYZDZK-01.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Ren Zhang, MD, Doctor, Department of Oncology, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 185 Pu'an Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200000, China. zhangyuren1949@163.com
Received: September 20, 2024
Revised: November 2, 2024
Accepted: November 25, 2024
Published online: February 24, 2025
Processing time: 82 Days and 0.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

In recent years, numerous reports have been published regarding the relationship between the gut microbiota and the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). However, to date, no systematic study has been conducted on the relationship between gut microbiota and the TIME using bibliometric methods.

AIM

To describe the current global research status on the correlation between gut microbiota and the TIME, and to identify the most influential countries, research institutions, researchers, and research hotspots related to this topic.

METHODS

We searched for all literature related to gut microbiota and TIME published from January 1, 2014, to May 28, 2024, in the Web of Science Core Collection database. We then conducted a bibliometric analysis and created visual maps of the published literature on countries, institutions, authors, keywords, references, etc., using CiteSpace (6.2R6), VOSviewer (1.6.20), and bibliometrics (based on R 4.3.2).

RESULTS

In total, 491 documents were included, with a rapid increase in the number of publications starting in 2019. The country with the highest number of publications was China, followed by the United States. Germany has the highest number of citations in literature. From a centrality perspective, the United States has the highest influence in this field. The institutions with the highest number of publications were Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhejiang University. However, the institution with the most citations was the United States National Cancer Institute. Among authors, Professor Giorgio Trinchieri from the National Institutes of Health has the most local impact in this field. The most cited author was Fan XZ. The results of journal publications showed that the top three journals with the highest number of published papers were Frontiers in Immunology, Cancers, and Frontiers in Oncology. The three most frequently used keywords were gut microbiota, tumor microenvironment, and immunotherapy.

CONCLUSION

This study systematically elaborates on the research progress related to gut microbiota and TIME over the past decade. Research results indicate that the number of publications has rapidly increased since 2019, with research hotspots including “gut microbiota”, “tumor microenvironment” and “immunotherapy”. Exploring the effects of specific gut microbiota or derived metabolites on the behavior of immune cells in the TIME, regulating the secretion of immune molecules, and influencing immunotherapy are research hotspots and future research directions.

Keywords: Gut microbiota; Tumor immune microenvironment; Bibliometric; CiteSpace; VOSviewer; R-bibliometrics

Core Tip: In this study, we conducted on the relationship between gut microbiota and the tumor immune microenvironment using bibliometric methods to reveal new trends in articles, journals, and keywords, the collaboration patterns among authors and institutions, and explore the research hotspots and future development directions of the correlation between gut microbiota and the tumor immune microenvironment.