Bibliometric analysis of immunotherapy in treatment of uveal melanoma

Abstract

Bibliometric analysis is a well-established method for evaluating published research and identifying emerging trends in scientific fields. While recent years have witnessed a surge of research on immunotherapy for uveal melanoma (ITFUM), a comprehensive bibliometric assessment of this domain is lacking. This study aims to conduct a thorough bibliometric analysis to examine the current state, areas of interest, and emerging trends in ITFUM research. A comprehensive collection of 418 publications on ITFUM, sourced from the Web of Science database between January 1, 2000 and May 10, 2024, was analyzed. Employing various bibliometric tools, including HisCite, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the bibliometrix package, the study examined data on countries, institutions, authors, journals, references, and keywords. The United States emerged as the leading contributor, accounting for 147 (35.17%) of the published articles. Leiden University was the most productive institution, with 24 (5.74%) publications. The author with the highest publication output was Jager, Martine J. with 15 (3.59%) publications. The journal Cancers demonstrated the highest productivity, with 37 (8.85%) articles. The trend topics between 2023 and 2024 have been identified as "gene," "proton-beam therapy," and "inhibitor." This comprehensive bibliometric analysis provides valuable insights into the current state, collaborative efforts, and future research directions in the field of ITFUM. Further research is needed to identify comprehensive biomarkers and enhance our understanding of the interactions between uveal melanoma cells and infiltrating immune cells. Additionally, efforts should focus on increasing M1-type tumor-associated macrophages, promoting dendritic cells maturation, inhibiting NKT cells, activating NK cells, and refining dendritic cells vaccines and T cell adoptive therapies.

Keywords: gene therapy; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; tumor microenviroment; uveal melanoma.

Figure 1.

Hierarchical chart depicting the process of publication selection.

Figure 2.

The yearly quantity and citations of publications pertaining to ITFUM. (A) The yearly quantity. (B) The yearly citations. (C) The yearly citations to each continent. (D) The yearly quantity to each continent. ITFUM = immunotherapy for uveal melanoma.

Figure 3.

The collaborative map and clusters of the country. (A) Country collaboration map and documents density. (B) Visualization of publication output among major countries.

Figure 4.

Collaborative clustering of institutions and authors. (A) Collaborative clustering of institutions. (B) Citations to each institute. (C) Collaborative clustering of authors.

Figure 5.

Analysis of core journals. (A) Bibliometric coupling within journals. (B) Citations to each journal.

Figure 6.

Analysis of keywords. (A) Clustering of the top 43 keywords with the highest number of occurrences. (B) keyword heatmap of the top 30.

Figure 7.

Trend topics from 2000 to 2024.