SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1656967
This article is part of the Research TopicCancer Immunotherapy and Tumor Escape Mechanisms: New Insights and Future DirectionsView all articles
Bibliometric Visualization of Lung Cancer Immunotherapy Resistance: A Decade of Research Progress (2014–2024)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
- 2Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Background: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally and represents the most common malignant tumor. While immunotherapy has significantly improved patient survival in recent years, the development of resistance limits its clinical efficacy. Currently, a systematic and comprehensive bibliometric analysis of drug resistance in immunotherapy for lung cancer is lacking. This study aims to address this gap by employing bibliometric methods to illuminate the knowledge structure and to identify key research hotspots in this critical area. Methods: We retrieved publications concerning lung cancer immunotherapy drug resistance from the Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed databases, covering January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2024. NoteExpress was used for data integration, duplicate detection, and screening. Subsequently, we quantitatively and visually analyzed the characteristics of the selected literature, with an emphasis on country, institution, and keywords. This analysis was performed utilizing VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the "bibliometrix" package in R. Result: The annual publication output showed a marked upward trend, peaking in 2024. China produced the most publications, while the USA demonstrated higher citation impact.Analysis of keywords revealed a clear thematic evolution: from initial focus on clinical trials (e.g.open-label) and specific drugs (e.g.nivolumab), to immune checkpoints (e.g.PD-1/PD-L1),and more recently to underlying molecular mechanisms like the tumor microenvironment,autophagy,and ferroptosis. Conclusions: This study offers a thorough overview of the most important research topics and emerging trends related to drug resistance and lung cancer immunotherapy. By integrating current knowledge, it enables researchers to swiftly identify pivotal research directions, thereby promoting in-depth development and innovation within the field and supporting the progression of clinical practice. For clinicians, this bibliometric insight provides a more scientific and precise basis for formulating treatment strategies, ultimately assisting lung cancer patients in deriving benefits from immunotherapy.
Keywords: Bibliometric, lung cancer, Immunotherapy resistance, mechanisms, Tumor Microenvironment
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Yang, Wang, Ren, Cui, Li and Wu. 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:
YAN Li, yan.xiaotian@shutcm.edu.cn
Jianchun Wu, eq219@126.com
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.