A scientometric study of chemical carcinogen-induced experimental oral carcinogenesis with emphasis on chemopreventive agents.

Background/purpose: 4-Nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO)-induced tongue carcinoma and 7,12-dimethlybenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced cheek pouch carcinoma are the most common and classical chemical carcinogen-induced animal models of oral carcinogenesis. The purpose of this study was to provide the research trends and characteristics of 4NQO- and DMBA-induced experimental oral carcinogenesis. Materials and methods: The papers on both 4NQO- and DMBA-induced experimental oral carcinogenesis were published since 1962. All the eligible papers were retrieved on 12 May 2023 from the Scopus database. Results: There were 506 and 349 papers on 4NQO- and DMBA-induced experimental oral carcinogenesis with 10,152 and 6306 citations, respectively. The common distinctive keywords such as rat, tongue neoplasms, drinking water, tumor microenvironment, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 were identified in the papers on 4NQO; and the common keywords such as hamster, cheek pouch, lipid peroxidation, glutathione, antioxidants, and topical drug administration were identified in the papers on DMBA. Importantly, 105 and 65 potential chemopreventive agents were identified from the papers on 4NQO and DMBA, respectively. Furthermore, 15 promising agents such as COX-2 inhibitor, curcumin, garlic were researched concurrently in both the two animal models. Conclusion: This study for the first time reports the scientometric characteristics of 4NQO- and DMBA-induced experimental oral carcinogenesis. Importantly, we identify a valuable profile for oral cancer chemopreventive agents, which will aid researchers and investigators in studying oral cancer chemoprevention.