Bibliometric analysis of global research trends in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor with poor prognosis and limited treatments. Immunotherapy shows promise in improving outcomes, but bibliometric analyses in this field are scarce. Our work reveals emerging trends, identifies research gaps, and highlights shifts in focus, offering valuable guidance for future research of immunotherapy and clinical practice. Pancreatic cancer immunotherapy bibliometric analyses were performed utilizing tools such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and RStudio, with a focus on the temporal and spatial distribution, prominent authors, research themes, keywords, and citation networks. The analysis reveals a significant increase in research activity on pancreatic cancer immunotherapy over the past decade, with hotspots including ICIs, CAR-T therapy, novel biomarkers, targeted therapies, the tumor microenvironment, and personalized treatment strategies. This study systematically reviews pancreatic cancer immunotherapy research progress from 1991 to 2024, highlighting key hotspots and trends. Future efforts should focus on ICIs, CAR-T therapy, and combination strategies, to enhance outcomes and extend patient survival.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer; hotspots and trends; immunotherapy; therapy; treatment strategies.

Figure 1.

A comprehensive flowchart illustrating the stages of the publication screening process and the search methodology.

Figure 2.

The global distribution of cumulative publications and citation counts across countries, and the temporal trends in publication and citation growth in the field of pancreatic cancer immunotherapy from 1991 to 2024. (A)The global distribution of cumulative publications. (B)The distribution of cumulative citation counts across countries. (C) Trends in the annual publication and citation counts for pancreatic cancer immunotherapy from 1991 to 2024.

Figure 3.

Comprehensive visualization of global research productivity, collaboration patterns, temporal trends, and citation impact in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy across countries and regions. (A) Network visualization map showing the collaborative relationships among the most research-active countries. (B) Overlay visualization map highlighting the average publication output per country. (C) Overlay visualization map illustrating the average publication year across countries. (D) Bar chart depicting the top 10 most productive countries in the domain.

Figure 4.

Co-authorship analysis of the excellent authors in the field of pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. (A) Dynamic patterns of international scientific collaboration. (B) Network visualization of collaborative relationships. (C) Overlay visualization highlighting average citation counts. (D) Overlay visualization illustrating temporal trends. (E) geographical distribution and title-term relationships of prominent authors.

Figure 5.

Institutional collaboration and research impact analysis in the field of pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. (A) The institutional collaboration network. (B) Time-dependent evolution of institutional collaborations. (C) Network visualization weighted by average citation impact. (D) A comparative visualization of publication volume, total citation count and average citation count in top 10 institutions. (E)The annual publication trends of the top five institutions.

Figure 6.

The journal dual-map overlay, cumulative publication trends of top 5 journals, and publication-citation comparisons for top 10 journals. (A)The journal dual-map overlay. (B)The cumulative publication trends of the top 5 journals. (C)Compares publication volumes with average citation counts in the top 10 journals.

Figure 7.

Heat map of highly cited papers.

Figure 8.

The temporal evolution of keywords in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy.

Figure 9.

Keyword co-occurrence network analysis in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. (A)the keyword co-occurrence network analysis. (B) citation-weighted keyword co-occurrence network. (C) temporal keyword co-occurrence network with publication year overlay.

Figure 10.

Research trends and keyword analysis in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. (A) Temporal evolution of research hotspots and emerging directions. (B) Top 25 high-impact citation keywords.