Research trends and emerging themes in cancer microbiome studies: A bibliometric analysis (2009-2024)

Abstract

The microbiome has been increasingly recognized as a crucial factor in cancer development and treatment. To guide future research by identifying key trends and thematic directions in cancer microbiome studies, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 6,454 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2009 and 2024. The United States and China led in publication output and international collaboration. Prominent keywords included “gut microbiome,” “colorectal cancer,” “immunotherapy,” “intratumoral microbiome,” and “metabolism.” Rapidly emerging research areas encompassed the causal relationship between the microbiome and cancer, the role of microbial metabolites, the impact of dietary interventions on the microbiome, and the interplay between the intratumor microbiome and the tumor microenvironment. Co-citation network analysis revealed widely used analytical tools including QIIME and DADA2 for marker-gene sequencing, LEfSe for identifying taxa with differential abundance, and SIAMCAT for investigating microbiome-host phenotype associations. Research on colorectal and breast cancers dominated the literature, highlighting a relative lack of studies on other malignancies such as brain tumors and sarcomas. These findings offer valuable insights into current research priorities and may guide future cancer microbiome research toward the development of microbiome-based early cancer diagnostics, personalized anticancer therapies, and non-invasive monitoring strategies.

Keywords

Cancer / Microbiome / Bibliometric analysis / Bioinformatics / Biostatistics

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, through grant P30 CA076292.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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