ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Gastric and Esophageal Cancers
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1576696
Hotspots and Frontiers of the Relationship Between Gastric Cancer and Cancer-associated Fibroblasts: A Bibliometric Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Lishui Second People's Hospital, Lishui, China
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Background: Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) are pivotal stromal constituents within the Tumor Microenvironment (TME), characterized by marked heterogeneity and plasticity. Over the past two decades, a notable association between Gastric Cancer (GC) and CAFs has been established. Despite this, there remains a paucity of comprehensive data to guide researchers in understanding the prevalence and potential research trajectories concerning GC and CAFs.Methods: This study conducted an extensive literature search within the Web of Science Core Collection database from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2023. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were performed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, R software, and Microsoft Excel.Results: A total of 1170 articles were included. These articles were disseminated across 200 journals and incorporated 1800 distinct keywords. A notable surge in publications has been observed from 2011 to 2023. China emerged as the leading contributor to both article count and citations. Prominent research institutions in this domain include Osaka City University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and National Cancer Research Center Hospital. Notable researchers, such as Masakazu Yashiro and Kosei Hirakawa from Osaka City University and Zhenggang Zhu from Shanghai Jiaotong University, were among the most productive and highly cited authors. FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY boasts the highest number of publications, whereas ONCOGENE ranks as the most cited journal. The primary research foci within the realm of CAFs and GC encompass the impact of CAFs on GC cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, immunosuppression, drug resistance, and the interplay between CAFs and GC.Conclusion: Using bibliometric analysis, this study presents a panoramic view of the research landscape of CAFs and GC from 2003 to 2023. It highlights prominent research areas and anticipates future directions with the aim of offering valuable insights and strategic recommendations for future endeavors in this field.
Keywords: cancer-associated fibroblasts, gastric cancer, Bibliometrics, Tumor Microenvironment, hot spot
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Ren, Zhu, Shen, Qian, Chen and Chen. 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: Fangling Chen, Lishui Second People's Hospital, Lishui, China
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