ReviewCurrent oncology reports2026
The Application and Advancement of Herbal Medicine in Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Bibliometrix Visualization and Pan-cancer Analysis.
Review in Current oncology reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionHerbal medicine has emerged as an important area of investigation in gastrointestinal cancers owing to its multitarget therapeutic potential and growing integration with modern oncology. However, the rapid expansion of the literature has resulted in a fragmented understanding of the field's knowledge structure, research evolution, and emerging directions.
methodsA bibliometric analysis was performed using publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection between 2016 and 2025. Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace were employed to evaluate publication trends, collaboration networks, thematic evolution, and knowledge foundations. To further assess the biological relevance of major research themes, representative molecular markers associated with apoptosis, cell-cycle regulation, and epithelial biology were examined using transcriptomic data integrated from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project through the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) platform.
resultsA total of 1,985 publications were included. Research activity increased substantially over the study period, particularly after 2020. Bibliometric analyses revealed a progressive transition from traditional investigations of apoptosis, proliferation, and metastasis toward emerging themes involving tumor microenvironment regulation, ferroptosis, gut microbiota interactions, network pharmacology, and molecular docking. Knowledge structure analyses demonstrated increasing integration of experimental oncology, bioinformatics, and traditional Chinese medicine research. China dominated global publication output, while the United States exhibited the strongest international collaborative profile. Exploratory transcriptomic validation showed that representative molecular markers (BCL2, CCND1, and CDH1) exhibited differential expression patterns across multiple gastrointestinal malignancies, supporting the biological relevance of the dominant research themes identified through bibliometric analyses.
conclusionResearch on herbal medicine for gastrointestinal cancers is transitioning from descriptive pharmacological investigations toward mechanism-oriented, data-driven, and translational research. By integrating bibliometric visualization with exploratory pan-gastrointestinal-cancer transcriptomic validation, this study provides a comprehensive overview of the field's evolution and offers a complementary framework linking knowledge mapping with molecular-level evidence. These findings provide biological context for emerging research priorities and may facilitate future biomarker discovery and precision-oriented herbal medicine research for gastrointestinal cancers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.