Research progress and frontier trends in liver cancer immunotherapy in the post-COVID-19 era (2020–2024): a visualization analysis based on bibliometric methods

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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed liver cancer research, making immunotherapy a key breakthrough for advanced cases. This study uses bibliometrics to reveal research hotspots and paradigm shifts of this field from 2020 to 2024. METHODS: The data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (2020 to 2024). Data quality was ensured through two rounds of independent data cleaning, achieving a Kappa coefficient of 0.89. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted on the literature related to liver cancer immunotherapy, utilizing tools such as Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, Scimago Graphica, CiteSpace, and Microsoft Office Excel (2022 version). RESULTS: From 2020 to 2024, China and the US led global liver cancer immunotherapy research, forming a collaboration network with Canada. Sun Yat-sen University is a key hub with over 600 publications and an annual growth rate of 18.5%, closely collaborating with Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Zhejiang University (correlation index 0.92). The journal impact is dominated by Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in Oncology, which form a dual-core citation network, with the top 1% journals contributing 35.7% of publications. Frontiers in Immunology has the highest h-index (35) and fastest growth rate. The co-citation network includes three major clusters: immune mechanisms (led by Nature), clinical trials (Clinical Cancer Research), and liver cancer pathology (Hepatology). Research themes evolve in four directions: prognostic models, tumor microenvironment, hepatocellular carcinoma mechanisms, and cancer immunotherapy. Hotspots include "cancer", "immunotherapy", and "hepatocellular carcinoma", with rising trends in "tumor microenvironment" and "combination therapy" after 2021. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred multidisciplinary integration and the use of real-world evidence in research. Emerging themes like Sino-American collaboration, knowledge diffusion in core journals, and tumor microenvironment are shaping liver cancer immunotherapy research in the post-pandemic era. This study offers strategic insights for optimizing resources and advancing clinical-basic translational research.

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