Trends and annual publications
The volume of global publications in the field of brainstem tumors exhibited consistent growth, rising from 73 in 1992 to 244 in 2022 (Fig. 2A), as illustrated by the smooth upward trajectory depicted in Fig. 2B. The zenith of production was observed in 2021, with a total of 296 articles published.
Countries and organizations
In terms of geographical distribution, a total of 5,525 articles originated from 84 different countries and regions. The frequency of countries’ scientific production was shown in Fig. 3A. The United States led in publications, contributing 1,823 papers, constituting 33.0% of the total. This was followed by Japan with 508 papers (9.2%), Chinese with 505 papers (9.1%), Germany with 374 papers (6.8%), and Italy with 218 papers (4.0%) (Fig. 3B). Regarding citations, the United States commanded the highest citation frequency, amassing an impressive 81,148 citations. Japan followed with 10,393 citations, Germany with 10,181 citations, and France with 7,766 citations (Fig. 3C). A comprehensive analysis of total link strength among 43 countries unveiled that the top five nations were the United States (1,003 times), Germany (445 times), England (389 times), Canada and France, with 310 and 293 times, respectively (Fig. 4A).
In terms of organizational contributions, a noteworthy total of 4,746 institutions participated in brainstem tumor research. The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital made the most substantial impact with 121 records, representing 2.5% of all articles. Following closely were the University of California San Francisco (108 records, 2.3%), Capital Medical University (94 records, 2.0%), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (90 records, 1.9%), and Duke University (84 records, 1.8%). Moreover, the assessment of total link strength among institutions encompassed 283 institutions, with only one organization excluded due to its lack of collaboration with other institutions (Fig. 4B). Among the 272 entities considered, the top five institutions in terms of link strength were St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (315), Children's National Medical Center (275), University of California San Francisco (230), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (207), and The Hospital for Sick Children (198).
Sources of the publications
The top 10 journals from a pool of 1,159 journals, representing the highest number of publications related to brainstem tumors, are summarized in Table 1. The Journal of Neurosurgery led the pack with 217 records, accounting for 3.9% of all articles, followed by the Journal of Neuro-Oncology (167 records, 3.0%), Childs Nervous System (143 records, 2.6%), World Neurosurgery (114 records, 2.1%), and Neurosurgery (99 records, 1.8%).
Table 1
Top 10 journals that have the outmost number of publications and cited journals have the largest number of citations.
Journals | Number of publications | Impact Factor (partition) | | Cited journals | Number of citations | Impact Factor (partition) |
Journal of Neurosurgery | 217 | 4.1 (Q1) | | Journal of Neurosurgery | 7651 | 4.1 (Q1) |
Journal of Neuro-Oncology | 167 | 3.9 (Q2) | | Neurosurgery | 5511 | 4.8 (Q1) |
Childs Nervous System | 143 | 1.4 (Q3) | | IJROBP | 4264 | 7.0 (Q1) |
World Neurosurgery | 114 | 2.0 (Q2) | | Journal of Neuro-Oncology | 2903 | 3.9 (Q2) |
Neurosurgery | 99 | 4.8 (Q1) | | Journal of Clinical Oncology | 2507 | 45.3 (Q1) |
IJROBP | 94 | 7.0 (Q1) | | PNAS | 2419 | 11.1 (Q1) |
Journal of Clinical Neuroscience | 85 | 2.0 (Q4) | | Neuro-Oncology | 2298 | 15.9 (Q1) |
Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics | 83 | 1.9 (Q2) | | Nature | 2254 | 64.8 (Q1) |
Acta Neurochirurgica | 82 | 2.4 (Q2) | | Cancer Research | 2082 | 11.2 (Q1) |
Neuro-Oncology | 77 | 15.9 (Q1) | | Acta Neuropathologica | 1813 | 12.7 (Q1) |
Figure 5 illustrates that the analysis of co-citations among journals included a subset of 494 journals that had published more than 50 articles related to brainstem tumor. The visualization revealed a pronounced multi-center trend, indicating that publications in the Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neuro-Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, PNAS, and IJROBP exhibit active citation relationships with other journals. Furthermore, Table 1 presents the top 10 journals with the highest number of cited brainstem tumor-related publications. Specifically, the Journal of Neurosurgery secured the highest number of citations (7,660), followed by Neurosurgery (5,518), International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (4,264), Journal of Neuro-Oncology (2,903), and Journal of Clinical Oncology (2,507).
Authors and co-cited authors
A total of 26,809 authors have contributed articles related to brainstem tumors. As depicted in Fig. 6A, Liwei Zhang from Capital Medical University emerged as the most prolific author with the highest number of published papers, totaling 55 articles (Fig. 6B). He was followed closely by Amar Gajjar from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with 50 publications, Alberto Broniscer from the University of Pittsburgh with 46, Jacques Grill from Gustave Roussy with 41. Furthermore, in terms of citations, Cynthia Hawkins and Chris Jones shared the top position in this field with 882 citations, closely followed by Eric Bouffet with 881 citations, Jacques Grill with 789 citations, and Ute Bartels with 701 citations (Fig. 6C).
On the other hand, the h-index serves as an author-level metric, assessing both the productivity and scientific impact of researchers. The top five authors with the highest h-index values were as follows: Amar Gajjar, LE Kun, and Roger J. Packer, all with an h-index of 27, followed by Alberto Broniscer with 26, and Ian F. Pollack with 25 (Fig. 6D). Among the 472 authors considered for co-author analysis, 185 authors were excluded due to a lack of connections with others (Fig. 6F). We were able to identify several research groups leading by Amar Gajjar, Jacques Grill, Javad Nazarian, Chris Jones or Liwei Zhang (Fig. 6E).
Citations analysis
The results reveal that there were 903 publications garnering over 50 citations (Fig. 7A). In Table 2, we present the top 10 publications with the highest global citations. Notably, the publications titled "CBTRUS Statistical Report: Primary Brain and Other Central Nervous System Tumors Diagnosed in the United States in 2011–2015," "Single-dose radiosurgical treatment of recurrent previously irradiated primary brain tumors and brain metastases: final report of RTOG protocol 90 − 05," and "Evidence for topographic organization in the cerebellum of motor control versus cognitive and affective processing" claimed the top three positions.
Table 2
Top 10 journals that have the outmost number of publications and cited journals have the largest number of citations.
Title | First author | Corresponding author | DOI | Source | Publication year | Citations |
CBTRUS Statistical Report: Primary Brain and Other Central Nervous System Tumors Diagnosed in the United States in 2011–2015 | Quinn T Ostrom | Jill S Barnholtz-Sloan | 10.1093/neuonc/noy131 | Neuro-Oncology | 2018 | 1207 |
Single dose radiosurgical treatment of recurrent previously irradiated primary brain tumors and brain metastases: final report of RTOG protocol 90 − 05 | E Shaw | N Farnan | 10.1016/S0360-3016(99)00507-6 | International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics | 2000 | 1134 |
Evidence for topographic organization in the cerebellum of motor control versus cognitive and affective processing | Catherine J Stoodley | Jeremy D Schmahmann | 10.1016/j.cortex.2009.11.008 | Cortex | 2010 | 922 |
Neurons derived from reprogrammed fibroblasts functionally integrate into the fetal brain and improve symptoms of rats with Parkinson's disease | Marius Wernig | Rudolf Jaenisch | 10.1073/pnas.0801677105 | PNAS | 2008 | 894 |
CBTRUS Statistical Report: Primary brain and other central nervous system tumors diagnosed in the United States in 2010–2014 | Quinn T Ostrom | Jill S Barnholtz-Sloan | 10.1093/neuonc/nox158 | Neuro-Oncology | 2017 | 765 |
Phase III study of craniospinal radiation therapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for newly diagnosed average-risk medulloblastoma | Roger J Packer | Richard Sposto | 10.1200/JCO.2006.06.4980 | Journal of Clinical Oncology | 2006 | 652 |
K27M mutation in histone H3.3 defines clinically and biologically distinct subgroups of pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas | Dong-Anh Khuong-Quang | Cynthia Hawkins | 10.1007/s00401-012-0998-0 | Acta Neuropathologica | 2012 | 649 |
Dissecting the genomic complexity underlying medulloblastoma | David T. W. Jones | Peter Lichter | 10.1038/nature11284 | Nature | 2012 | 622 |
Tumour predisposition in mice heterozygous for a targeted mutation in Nf1 | Tyler Jacks | Robert A. Weinberg | 10.1038/ng0794-353 | Nature Genetics | 1994 | 616 |
A functional anatomical analysis of central pathways subserving the effects of interleukin-1 on stress-related neuroendocrine neurons | Anders Ericsson | Paul E. Sawchenko | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-02-00897.1994 | Journal of Neuroscience | 1994 | 583 |
In the realm of co-cited analysis, we included 89 publications (Fig. 7B), and among them, we present the top 10 publications with the highest number of citations in Table 3. The top three publications, based on citation rank, were "Diffuse brainstem glioma in children: critical review of clinical trials" (228 citations), "Somatic histone H3 alterations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and non-brainstem glioblastomas" (226 citations), and "The 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System: a summary" (190 citations).
Table 3
Top ten publications that have the most cited counts from collaborative analysis in brainstem tumor research.
Title | First author | Corresponding author | DOI | Source | Publication year | Citations |
Diffuse brainstem glioma in children: critical review of clinical trials | Darren Hargrave | Eric Bouffet | 10.1016/s1470-2045(06)70615-5 | The Lancet Oncology | 2006 | 228 |
Somatic histone H3 alterations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and non-brainstem glioblastomas | Gang Wu | Suzanne J Baker | 10.1038/ng.1102 | Nature Genetics | 2012 | 226 |
The 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System: a summary | David N Louis | David W Ellison | 10.1007/s00401-016-1545-1 | Acta Neuropathologica | 2016 | 190 |
Driver mutations in histone H3.3 and chromatin remodelling genes in paediatric glioblastoma | Jeremy Schwartzentruber | Nada Jabado | 10.1038/nature10833 | Nature | 2012 | 187 |
K27M mutation in histone H3.3 defines clinically and biologically distinct subgroups of pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas | Dong-Anh Khuong-Quang | Cynthia Hawkins | 10.1007/s00401-012-0998-0 | Acta Neuropathologica | 2012 | 180 |
The genomic landscape of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and pediatric non-brainstem high-grade glioma | Gang Wu | Suzanne J Baker | 10.1038/ng.2938 | Nature Genetics | 2014 | 161 |
Magnetic Resonance Scans Should Replace Biopsies for the Diagnosis of Diffuse Brain Stem Gliomas A Report from the Children's Cancer Group | Albright, A. Leland | Hammond, G. Denman | 10.1227/00006123-199312000-00010 | Neurosurgery | 1993 | 152 |
Genomic analysis of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas identifies three molecular subgroups and recurrent activating ACVR1 mutations | Pawel Buczkowicz | Cynthia Hawkins | 10.1038/ng.2936 | Nature Genetics | 2014 | 152 |
Histone H3F3A and HIST1H3B K27M mutations define two subgroups of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas with different prognosis and phenotypes | David Castel | Marie-Anne Debily | 10.1007/s00401-015-1478-0 | Acta Neuropathologica | 2015 | 128 |
Recurrent activating ACVR1 mutations in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma | Kathryn R Taylor | Jacques Grill | 10.1038/ng.2925 | Nature Genetics | 2014 | 123 |
Hotspots and frontiers
A total of 17,846 keywords were extracted from the titles and abstracts of all publications. We employed VOSviewer to visualize the network and temporal patterns of 896 keywords that exceeded the threshold of 10 occurrences (Fig. 8A, B). The most prominent research field, represented by the keyword network, revolved around "tumors" (855 records, constituting 15.5% of all articles), followed closely by "children" (652 records, 11.8%), "management" (446 records, 7.7%), "expression" (425 records, 7.7%), and "radiotherapy" (378 records, 6.3%). These keywords formed four distinct clusters: "children tumor," "gene expression," "radiotherapy," and "surgery management" (Fig. 7A). Recent trends in brainstem tumor research have witnessed a notable surge in epigenetic studies and tumor micro-environment aspects (Fig. 7B). This indicates a growing focus on the epigenetic mechanisms and tumor-immune cell interaction within the realm of brainstem tumor research.