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Updated: May 26, 2026
Development of Compendium for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 12, 2024
Emerging research themes in macrophage-associated research for esophageal cancer: a bibliometric and visualized
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Background:
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are key regulators of the esophageal cancer microenvironment and are increasingly implicated in immune suppression, tumor invasion, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. With the rapid expansion of immunotherapy research and high-dimensional profiling technologies, a systematic and quantitative overview of this field is needed. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the global research landscape, identify major hotspots, and explore emerging trends in TAM-related esophageal cancer research.
Methods:
Publications on macrophages in esophageal cancer indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) from 2000 to 2025 were retrieved using predefined topic-search terms and eligibility criteria. Full records and cited references were exported and analyzed using GraphPad Prism for descriptive statistics, VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence mapping, and CiteSpace for collaboration networks, co-citation analysis, clustering/timeline visualization, and burst detection.
Results:
A total of 486 records were included, involving 38 countries/regions, 614 institutions, and 3,108 authors. Publication output increased gradually after 2000, accelerated after 2014, and continued to rise after 2020. Co-citation analysis identified a knowledge base centered on immunosuppressive microenvironment mapping in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and pivotal phase III immunotherapy evidence. Keyword mapping highlighted core themes of TAMs, prognosis, and the tumor microenvironment, with recent clusters and burst signals emphasizing immunotherapy, immune signatures, and single-cell transcriptomics.
Conclusions:
Macrophage-related research in esophageal cancer has shifted from early inflammatory characterization toward mechanistic and clinically oriented studies focused on immune regulation and treatment response. Emerging fronts-including state-resolved TAM biology, immune-signature modeling, and single-cell/spatial approaches are likely to guide future work and inform macrophage-targeted combination strategies with checkpoint blockade.
