T cell-mediated immune function in gastric cancer: a bibliometric overview of the last 20 years (2006-2025)

Gastric cancer (GC) causes massive cancer-related deaths worldwide. T cell-mediated immunity plays a vital role in anti-tumor responses, immune surveillance and immunotherapy efficacy for GC. Although numerous relevant studies have been published, no standardized multi-database bibliometric analysis has illustrated the overall development trajectory, cooperation patterns and research theme evolution of this field from 2006 to 2025. This bibliometric study aimed to quantify publication trends, collaborative networks and research hotspots of GC-related T cell immunity over the past two decades.

Literature restricted to reviews with T cell immune regulation in GC published from 2006 to 2025 was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), PubMed, Scopus. CiteSpace, VOSviewer were applied for bibliometric and visual analysis, encompassing publication trends, core authors, institutions, countries, journals, keywords, and research hotspots.

In total, 2,476 eligible publications were enrolled. Annual publications trended upward and surged after 2017, reaching 337 papers in 2025. Collaboration analysis showed China led global publication and citation outputs across the 20 years, while high bibliometric metrics only reflect regional research scale rather than superior research quality or clinical translation capacity. Fudan University, Frontiers in Immunology, Suk Ki Tae and Giovanni Targher were the most productive institution, journal, author and most co-cited author, respectively. Keywords including immune infiltration, tumor immune microenvironment, drug resistance and chemotherapy have gained rising popularity recently. Dynamic keyword shifts were closely linked to emerging single-cell sequencing technology and immune checkpoint inhibitor clinical trials. Importantly, keyword co-occurrence and clustering only show literature thematic patterns, not direct biological mechanisms or causal tumor immunology relationships.

This bibliometric study systematically and objectively summarizes the research status of T cells in GC, offering valuable insights and guidance for subsequent studies.

GC-related T cell immunity research has grown rapidly from 2006 to 2025, focusing mainly on tumor microenvironment regulation and immunotherapy. This work clarifies the field's research status and evolutionary trends, guiding future relevant investigations. Unlike previous single-database bibliometric analyses, this study adopts three mainstream databases, standardized data processing procedures, and providing novel supplementary insights for current evidence.