ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Immunity and Microbiome: Exploring Key Interactions and InnovationsView all 29 articles
Research on Microbial Communities in Tumor Microenvironments: Cutting-edge Dynamics and Future Trends from a Bibliometric Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- Cancer Institute, Jiangsu University Affiliated People's Hospital, Zhenjiang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background In recent years, researchers have identified numerous potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets applicable to cancer immunotherapy, among which the role of tumor-internal microorganisms in the tumor microenvironment has been explored. However, this field is still in its early stages of development, facing limitations such as the unclear mechanisms of interaction between tumor-internal microorganisms and host immunity, as well as significant variations in microbial profiles among different tumor types and patients. Objective This study aims to explore the research hotspots and development trends of tumor-internal microorganisms through bibliometric methods and to construct a systematic knowledge map. Methods This study retrieved publications related to tumor-internal microorganisms from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) prior to December 22, 2025. Subsequently, the selected literature was analyzed using VOSviewer (v.1.6.20), CiteSpace (v.6.4.1R), and SCImago Graphica. In addition, we integrated PubMed data to assess status and trends in preclinical and clinical studies of intratumoral microbiota interventions for anti-tumor therapy efficacy. Results We retrieved 1,278 articles from the Web of Science, which supports the gradual increase in the number of publications since 2012. China and the United States are the two leading countries in this field. From the Web of Science database, we retrieved 1,278 relevant articles. Since 2012, the number of papers published on the intratumoral microbiota has shown an overall upward trend. China and the United States are the two major countries in this field. Keyword analysis shows that “tumor microbiome,” “gut microbiome,” “cancer,” and “Fusobacterium nucleatum” are frequent terms. 11 keyword groups have been identified, among which “tumor immunotherapy” and “immune microenvironment” form two important groups. A total of 69 preclinical and clinical studies has intervened in intratumoral microbiota and affected anti-tumor treatment outcomes. Among them, 25 studies involving Fusobacterium nucleatum account for a large proportion. However, most of these studies are still at the basic or preclinical stage, and clinical translation evidence is limited.
Keywords: bibliometric analysis, cancer therapy, Fusobacterium nucleatum, immune microenvironment, intratumoral microbiota
Received: 13 Nov 2025; Accepted: 20 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Tang, Man, Yu, Gong and Fan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu Fan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.