Bibliometric analysis of global research trends between gut microbiota and pancreatic cancer: from 2004 to 2023

Abstract

BackgroundPancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal malignancies of the digestive system and is expected to be the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States by 2030. A growing body of evidence suggests that the gut microbiota (GM) is intimately involved in the clinical diagnosis, oncogenic mechanism and treatment of PC. However, no bibliometric analysis of PC and GM has been reported.MethodsThe literature on PC and GM was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database for the period from January 1, 2004 to April 25, 2023. Microsoft Excel 2021, CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Scimago Graphica, Graphpad Prism, Origin, the R package “bibliometrics” and the bibliometric online analysis program were used to visualize the publishing trends and hot spots in this field.ResultsA total of 1,449 articles were included, including 918 articles and 531 reviews. Publishing had grown rapidly since 2017, with the 2023 expected to publish 268 articles. Unsurprisingly, the United States ranked highest in terms of number of literatures, H index and average citations. The University of California System was the most active institution, but Harvard University tended to be cited the most on average. The three most influential researchers were Robert M. Hoffman, Zhao Minglei, and Zhang Yong. Cancers had published the most papers, while Nature was the most cited journal. Keyword analysis and theme analysis indicated that “tumor microenvironment,” “gemcitabine-resistance,” “ductal adenocarcinoma,” “gut microbiota” and “diagnosis” will be the hotspots and frontiers of research in the future.ConclusionIn summary, the field is receiving increasing attention. We found that future hotspots of PC/GM research may focus on the mechanism of oncogenesis, flora combination therapy and the exploitation of new predictive biomarkers, which provides effective suggestions and new insights for scholars.

Mapping knowledge landscapes and research frontiers of gastrointestinal microbiota and bone metabolism: a text-mining study

“…Genomic sequencing of gut microbiota unveils their diversity, abundance, and functional potential, while metabolomics enables scholars to explore the composition and variations of various metabolites within organisms, thereby elucidating the impact of microbiota on host metabolism and the host’s regulation of microbial metabolism ( Lau et al., 2023 ). Previous bibliometric analyses have demonstrated similar trends in research on gut microbiota in areas such as cancer ( Zyoud et al., 2022 ; Wu et al., 2023 ), inflammatory diseases ( Liu et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ), immune system disorders ( Ni et al., 2022 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ), and traumatic injuries ( Du et al., 2023 ; Huang et al., 2023 ). It is conceivable that with ongoing breakthroughs in omics technologies, our understanding of the relationship and mechanisms between gut microbiota and bone metabolism will be further enhanced, consequently leading to a continued increase in publications within this field in the foreseeable future.…”

“…In this study, literature retrieval was conducted using the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), a subset of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), renowned as one of the foremost databases in the biomedical field ( Wu et al., 2021a ; Aguilar Ramírez et al., 2022 ; Ni et al., 2022 ; Temel et al., 2022 ; Zyoud et al., 2022 ; Du et al., 2023 ; Huang et al., 2023 ; Liu et al., 2023 ; Montazeri et al., 2023 ; Wang et al., 2023 ; Wu et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ; Babar et al., 2024 ; Cheng et al., 2024 ). The database, widely employed in bibliometric studies across disciplines, was accessed on March 3, 2024, with a search spanning a single day.…”

“…In recent years, owing to the explosive growth of biomedical literature and the continuous development of various free bibliometric tools such as CiteSpace and VOSviewer software, bibliometric studies have garnered increasing attention in the biomedical domain ( Aguilar Ramírez et al., 2022 ; Montazeri et al., 2023 ; Cheng et al., 2024 ). Taking the gut microbiota as an example, previous bibliometric studies have analyzed the relationship between gut microbiota and tumors ( Zyoud et al., 2022 ; Wu et al., 2023 ), inflammatory diseases ( Liu et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ), immune system disorders ( Ni et al., 2022 ; Zhang et al., 2023 ), as well as traumatic diseases ( Du et al., 2023 ; Huang et al., 2023 ). In the field of bone metabolism, several bibliometric analyses have investigated advancements and hotspots in research areas such as osteoporosis ( Wu et al., 2021a ; Temel et al., 2022 ), osteoarthritis ( Yang et al., 2022 ; Xiong et al., 2024 ), and rheumatoid arthritis ( Zhong et al., 2021 ; Radu et al., 2022 ), mapping the overall knowledge structure and citation networks of these fields.…”