Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2024; 30(9): 1224-1236
Published online Mar 7, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i9.1224
Telomerase-related advances in hepatocellular carcinoma: A bibliometric and visual analysis
Hai-Yang Li, Lin-Lin Zheng, Nan Hu, Zhi-Hao Wang, Chang-Cheng Tao, Ya-Ru Wang, Yue Liu, Zulihumaer Aizimuaji, Hong-Wei Wang, Rui-Qi Zheng, Ting Xiao, Wei-Qi Rong
Hai-Yang Li, Lin-Lin Zheng, Nan Hu, Chang-Cheng Tao, Yue Liu, Hong-Wei Wang, Wei-Qi Rong, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Zhi-Hao Wang, Department of Hepatobiliary Hernia Surgery, Liaocheng Dongcangfu People’s Hospital, Liaocheng 252000, Shandong Province, China
Ya-Ru Wang, Zulihumaer Aizimuaji, Rui-Qi Zheng, Ting Xiao, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Department of Etiology and Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Co-first authors: Hai-Yang Li and Lin-Lin Zheng.
Co-corresponding authors: Wei-Qi Rong and Ting Xiao.
Author contributions: Li HY, Zheng LL, Xiao T, and Rong WQ designed this study; Hu N and Tao CC collected the data; Li HY and Zheng LL performed the analysis; Wang YR and Wang ZH normalized the pictures; Li HY, Liu Y, and Aizimuaji Z wrote the original draft; Wang HW and Zheng RQ approved the final manuscript; all authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. Li HY and Zheng LL collaboratively served as co-first authors in this study, with both individuals contributing equally and significantly to data analysis, manuscript composition, and editing. Their collective efforts played integral roles in upholding the manuscript’s integrity and ensuring its overall quality. Xiao T and Rong WQ have jointly assumed the roles of co-corresponding authors, demonstrating equal and shared responsibility in guiding the project. The decision to designate them as such is rooted in two key considerations. Firstly, Xiao T and Rong WQ played instrumental roles in the primary project design, thereby enhancing the overall methodological rigor of the study. Secondly, this choice aims to recognize and honor the equitable contributions of the co-corresponding authors, emphasizing the principles of teamwork and collaboration inherent in this research endeavor.
Supported by the Beijing Hope Run Special Fund of Cancer Foundation of China, No. LC2020L05.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Qi Rong, MD, Professor, Surgeon, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 17 Panjiayuan South Lane, Beijing 100021, China. dr_rongweiqi@163.com
Received: November 11, 2023
Peer-review started: November 11, 2023
First decision: December 7, 2023
Revised: January 3, 2024
Accepted: February 3, 2024
Article in press: February 3, 2024
Published online: March 7, 2024
Abstract
BACKGROUND

As a critical early event in hepatocellular carcinogenesis, telomerase activation might be a promising and critical biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, and its function in the genesis and treatment of HCC has gained much attention over the past two decades.

AIM

To perform a bibliometric analysis to systematically assess the current state of research on HCC-related telomerase.

METHODS

The Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed were systematically searched to retrieve publications pertaining to HCC/telomerase limited to “articles” and “reviews” published in English. A total of 873 relevant publications related to HCC and telomerase were identified. We employed the Bibliometrix package in R to extract and analyze the fundamental information of the publications, such as the trends in the publications, citation counts, most prolific or influential writers, and most popular journals; to screen for keywords occurring at high frequency; and to draw collaboration and cluster analysis charts on the basis of coauthorship and co-occurrences. VOSviewer was utilized to compile and visualize the bibliometric data.

RESULTS

A surge of 51 publications on HCC/telomerase research occurred in 2016, the most productive year from 1996 to 2023, accompanied by the peak citation count recorded in 2016. Up to December 2023, 35226 citations were made to all publications, an average of 46.6 citations to each paper. The United States received the most citations (n = 13531), followed by China (n = 7427) and Japan (n = 5754). In terms of national cooperation, China presented the highest centrality, its strongest bonds being to the United States and Japan. Among the 20 academic institutions with the most publications, ten came from China and the rest of Asia, though the University of Paris Cité, Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris, and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) were the most prolific. As for individual contributions, Hisatomi H, Kaneko S, and Ide T were the three most prolific authors. Kaneko S ranked first by H-index, G-index, and overall publication count, while Zucman-Rossi J ranked first in citation count. The five most popular journals were the World Journal of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Oncotarget, and Oncogene, while Nature Genetics, Hepatology, and Nature Reviews Disease Primers had the most citations. We extracted 2293 keywords from the publications, 120 of which appeared more than ten times. The most frequent were HCC, telomerase and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). Keywords such as mutational landscape, TERT promoter mutations, landscape, risk, and prognosis were among the most common issues in this field in the last three years and may be topics for research in the coming years.

CONCLUSION

Our bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of HCC/telomerase research and insights into promising upcoming research.

Keywords: Telomerase, Bibliometric analysis, Telomerase reverse transcriptase, Prognosis, Treatment, Hepatocellular carcinoma

Core Tip: As a common event and promising biomarker in the early stage of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), telomerase activation is tightly connected to the survival rate and clinical prognosis of HCC patients. In this vein, the progress of immunotherapy and relevant studies on telomerase reverse transcriptase vaccination are strongly valuable. This study presents the first bibliometric analysis of telomerase-related research on HCC, offering a comprehensive overview of HCC-related telomerase studies. Keywords such as mutational landscape, telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter mutations, landscape, risk, and prognosis will be hot topics in the near future.