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. 2025 Jul 8:16:1607240.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1607240. eCollection 2025.

Hydrogels in cancer treatment: mapping the future of precision drug delivery

Xiang Liu #  1 , Qiang Zhou #  2 , Yue Yang  1 , Xin Wu  1 , Jie Chen  1 , Ruoqin Wang  1 , Erhua Chen  1
Affiliations

Hydrogels in cancer treatment: mapping the future of precision drug delivery

Xiang Liu et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: Current primary tumor treatments include curative resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, these conventional methods lack precise drug delivery. Hydrogels, adaptable to the biological characteristics of different tumors, offer potential as drug delivery systems and represent a significant area of research in tumor treatment. In this study, we aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to reveal the current progress and future prospects of hydrogels for drug delivery in cancer.

Methods: Publications concerning hydrogels in tumor drug delivery were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Data regarding countries/regions, institutions, journals, authors, and document types were collected. Bibliometric analysis and network visualization were performed using CiteSpace, HisCite, VOSviewer, Alluvial Generator, and R software.

Results: China, the United States, and India were the leading contributing countries. Of the 98 relevant categories, 94 experienced citation bursts between 2000 and 2024. The research team led by Professor Pourmadadi Mehrab demonstrated substantial influence in this field. The International Journal of Biological Macromolecules was the most prolific journal. The top three emergent categories originated in 2020 or later, are "Chemistry, Applied", "Engineering, Environmental", and "Biochemistry & Molecular Biology". "Designing hydrogels for controlled drug delivery" was the most highly cited article. Recent emergent keywords included immunotherapy, immunogenic cell death, carboxymethyl cellulose, and antibacterial. Key concept alluvial flow visualization revealed six terms: peritoneal carcinomatosis, iron oxide nanoparticles, drug delivery, release kinetics, carbon dots, and pathway. Nano-composite hydrogels, immunotherapy, quercetin, pancreatic cancer, and oral cancer exhibited recent activity within the cited article timeline, suggesting these areas as potential future research hotspots.

Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis identifies future research directions within the developing field of hydrogels for drug delivery in cancer. This study provides recommendations and directions for the development of hydrogels as tumor drug delivery systems.

Keywords: CiteSpace; bibliometrics; cancer; drug delivery; hydrogels.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of search and study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The keywords of top 5 modules in 2024. (A) Module 1. (B) Module 2. (C) Module 3. (D) Module 4. (E) Module 5. (F) Module 6.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Annual number of publications. (B) The top 20 journals by publication volume.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Knowledge map of co-citation literature.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A) The cooperation network of countries. (B) The cooperation network of institutions. (c) The cooperation network of authors.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Top50 subject categories with the strongest citation bursts.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Top50 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Knowledge map of keyword clustering. (A) 2000-2006, (B) 2007-2012, (C) 2013-2018, (D) 2019-2024.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The keywords alluvial map 2000–2024. X axis: Time slice. Y axis: Counting of modules.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The reference clusters map. (A) the citation timeline visualization, (B) The burst citation in #0, #3, #8, #10, and #18, (C) citation frequency distribution of the burst citation, X-axis: Year, Y-axis: Cited frequency.
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