Prospective head and neck cancer research: a four-decade bibliometric perspective

It is unknown whether changes in study sponsorship have affected the proportion of prospective research on surgery, radiotherapy, and pharmacotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) being published over time.

We examined prospective studies from PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. Chi-squared tests were used to identify significant associations between sponsorship and authorship, treatments within study protocols, and presentation of results, whereas time-based trends were analyzed using the Cochran-Armitage test.

Among 309 articles, industry (70, 22.7%) and the U.S. government (65, 21%) were the most common sponsors. There was a significant increase in the proportion of industry-sponsored research (p for trend = .013) and a decline in U.S. government-sponsored research (p for trend = .001) over time. The inclusion of surgery in treatment protocols declined over the past four decades (p for trend = .003). Protocols incorporating pharmacotherapy were more likely to have industry support than those without pharmacotherapy (p = .001), whereas protocols with radiotherapy (p = .003) or surgery (p = .002) were less likely to have industry support.

Industry is the predominant sponsor of prospective HNSCC research, with an emphasis on pharmacotherapy.