Liu Gao-Min, Guo Rui, Xu Ji-Wei
Meizhou Clinical Medical College of Shantou University Medical College, Meizhou, China.
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Meizhou People's Hospital, Meizhou, China.
Front Pharmacol. 2025 Apr 7;16:1520055. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1520055. eCollection 2025.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the treatment landscape of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially those with unresectable advanced stages. The field has progressed rapidly, and the research hotspots have significantly changed compared to previous years. The study aims to comprehensively review and analyze the development history, knowledge structure, current research focus, and emerging trends in ICIs for HCC.
Reviews and articles published in English from The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database from 2014 to 2024 were systemically retrieved. Citespace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix R package were used for further bibliometric analysis and visualization for countries, institutions, authors, references, and keywords.
2,941 records were included for analysis. The literature on ICIs for HCC has continued to grow steadily over the past decade. Three major research centers have emerged: North America, Europe, and East Asia. The Chinese institution has the highest publication volume, but Kudo Masatoshi from Japan has the highest number of publications. At the same time, Richard S. Finn from the United States leads in citations and co-citations. The most prolific journal is "Cancers". The clustering and Timeline view of critical literature and keywords indicated that research on ICIs for HCC is rapidly advancing toward a more evidence-based, personalized, and multimodal approach. Immune evasion mechanisms, predictive biomarkers, and high-quality clinical trials focusing on Novel combination, conversion, and perioperative therapies, including ICIs, are emerging hotspots.
This study highlights the groundbreaking advancements of ICIs in treating HCC and shows a trend rapidly advancing towards a more evidence-based, personalized, and multimodal approach. The study updated the current understanding of ICIs in hepatocellular carcinoma and identified vital future directions for research, such as the exploration of mechanisms of immune evasion, developing predictive biomarkers, and combining therapy strategies.
免疫检查点抑制剂（ICIs）改变了肝细胞癌（HCC）的治疗格局，尤其是对于不可切除的晚期患者。该领域发展迅速，与前几年相比，研究热点发生了显著变化。本研究旨在全面回顾和分析ICIs用于HCC的发展历程、知识结构、当前研究重点及新趋势。
系统检索了2014年至2024年Web of Science核心合集（WoSCC）数据库中发表的英文综述和文章。使用Citespace、VOSviewer和Bibliometrix R包对国家、机构、作者、参考文献和关键词进行进一步的文献计量分析和可视化。
纳入2941条记录进行分析。过去十年中，关于ICIs用于HCC的文献持续稳步增长。出现了三个主要研究中心：北美、欧洲和东亚。中国机构的发文量最高，但日本的工藤雅敏发表的文章数量最多。同时，美国的理查德·S·芬恩在被引频次和共被引方面领先。发文量最多的期刊是《Cancers》。关键文献和关键词的聚类分析及时间线视图表明，ICIs用于HCC的研究正迅速朝着更循证、个性化和多模式的方法发展。免疫逃逸机制、预测性生物标志物以及聚焦于包括ICIs在内的新型联合、转化和围手术期治疗的高质量临床试验是新的热点。
本研究突出了ICIs在治疗HCC方面的开创性进展，并显示出朝着更循证、个性化和多模式方法迅速发展的趋势。该研究更新了目前对ICIs在肝细胞癌中的认识，并确定了重要的未来研究方向，如免疫逃逸机制的探索、预测性生物标志物的开发以及联合治疗策略。
