Liu Xiang, Zhou Qiang, Yang Yue, Wu Xin, Chen Jie, Wang Ruoqin, Chen Erhua
College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu College of Nursing, Huaian, Jiangsu, China.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Jinling Hospital, Medical school of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Front Immunol. 2025 Jul 8;16:1607240. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1607240. eCollection 2025.
Current primary tumor treatments include curative resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, these conventional methods lack precise drug delivery. Hydrogels, adaptable to the biological characteristics of different tumors, offer potential as drug delivery systems and represent a significant area of research in tumor treatment. In this study, we aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to reveal the current progress and future prospects of hydrogels for drug delivery in cancer.
Publications concerning hydrogels in tumor drug delivery were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Data regarding countries/regions, institutions, journals, authors, and document types were collected. Bibliometric analysis and network visualization were performed using CiteSpace, HisCite, VOSviewer, Alluvial Generator, and R software.
China, the United States, and India were the leading contributing countries. Of the 98 relevant categories, 94 experienced citation bursts between 2000 and 2024. The research team led by Professor Pourmadadi Mehrab demonstrated substantial influence in this field. The International Journal of Biological Macromolecules was the most prolific journal. The top three emergent categories originated in 2020 or later, are "Chemistry, Applied", "Engineering, Environmental", and "Biochemistry & Molecular Biology". "Designing hydrogels for controlled drug delivery" was the most highly cited article. Recent emergent keywords included immunotherapy, immunogenic cell death, carboxymethyl cellulose, and antibacterial. Key concept alluvial flow visualization revealed six terms: peritoneal carcinomatosis, iron oxide nanoparticles, drug delivery, release kinetics, carbon dots, and pathway. Nano-composite hydrogels, immunotherapy, quercetin, pancreatic cancer, and oral cancer exhibited recent activity within the cited article timeline, suggesting these areas as potential future research hotspots.
This bibliometric analysis identifies future research directions within the developing field of hydrogels for drug delivery in cancer. This study provides recommendations and directions for the development of hydrogels as tumor drug delivery systems.
当前原发性肿瘤的治疗方法包括根治性切除、化疗和放疗。然而，这些传统方法缺乏精确的药物递送。水凝胶能够适应不同肿瘤的生物学特性，具有作为药物递送系统的潜力，是肿瘤治疗领域的一个重要研究方向。在本研究中，我们旨在进行文献计量学分析，以揭示水凝胶在癌症药物递送方面的当前进展和未来前景。
从科学网核心合集（WoSCC）数据库中检索有关水凝胶在肿瘤药物递送方面的出版物。收集了有关国家/地区、机构、期刊、作者和文献类型的数据。使用CiteSpace、HisCite、VOSviewer、冲积图生成器和R软件进行文献计量学分析和网络可视化。
中国、美国和印度是主要贡献国家。在98个相关类别中，有94个在2000年至2024年间出现了引用爆发。由Pourmadadi Mehrab教授领导的研究团队在该领域具有重大影响力。《国际生物大分子杂志》是发文量最多的期刊。前三大新兴类别起源于2020年或之后，分别是“应用化学”、“环境工程”和“生物化学与分子生物学”。“设计用于控制药物递送的水凝胶”是被引用次数最多的文章。最近出现的关键词包括免疫疗法、免疫原性细胞死亡、羧甲基纤维素和抗菌。关键概念冲积流可视化揭示了六个术语：腹膜癌、氧化铁纳米颗粒、药物递送、释放动力学、碳点和途径。纳米复合水凝胶、免疫疗法、槲皮素、胰腺癌和口腔癌在被引用文章时间线内近期表现活跃，表明这些领域是未来潜在的研究热点。
这项文献计量学分析确定了水凝胶在癌症药物递送这一发展领域内的未来研究方向。本研究为水凝胶作为肿瘤药物递送系统的开发提供了建议和方向。
