Research Hotspots and Trends in the Immune Microenvironment of Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Visual Analysis of the Literature

Abstract

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid cancer and one of the major diseases of endocrine malignancies worldwide. Its occurrence and progression are closely related to complex immune mechanisms, especially the dynamic changes of the tumor immune microenvironment. With the deepening of research, the interaction between PTC and the immune microenvironment has become a research focus in this field. In order to systematically evaluate the development trend of this field, this study used bibliometric methods to screen 180 relevant documents as of November 23, 2024 based on the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database, and used Bibliometrix R package and Citespace for data analysis and visualization. The analysis results showed that China and the United States were the main contributors to this field. Frontiers in Endocrinology was the journal with the highest number of publications, followed by Endocrine-Related Cancer and Frontiers in Immunology. In terms of authors, ZHANG W ranked first with seven articles, and LI X and WANG Y were the main contributors. Keyword analysis showed that “long noncoding RNAs” and “immune microenvironment” were the core themes of the research. Through bibliometric analysis in the field of PTC immune microenvironment, this study revealed the research hotspots, core countries, institutions, authors, and journals, clarified the direction and development trend of future research, and provided important academic reference for further exploration of PTC immune mechanisms and their clinical applications.