Mapping programmable mRNA research relevant to cancer-associated immune escape: a dual-database bibliometric and topic modeling analysis

@article{zhou2026mapping,
  title = {{Mapping programmable mRNA research relevant to cancer-associated immune escape: a dual-database bibliometric and topic modeling analysis}},
  author = {Xiao-Jie Zhou and Jun-Chi Zhu and Jian Dong and Shi-Ying Yan and Si-Yin Zhang and Jun-Ting Dong and Bai-Qi Zhang and Hong-Ru Che and Chen-Hao Zhang and Rui Zhang and Chi Zhang and De-Zhu Liu and Cheng-Gang Liu},
  journal = {Frontiers in Oncology},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3389/fonc.2026.1957469},
  url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1957469/full},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Mapping programmable mRNA research relevant to cancer-associated immune escape: a dual-database bibliometric and topic modeling analysis
AU  - Xiao-Jie Zhou
AU  - Jun-Chi Zhu
AU  - Jian Dong
AU  - Shi-Ying Yan
AU  - Si-Yin Zhang
AU  - Jun-Ting Dong
AU  - Bai-Qi Zhang
AU  - Hong-Ru Che
AU  - Chen-Hao Zhang
AU  - Rui Zhang
AU  - Chi Zhang
AU  - De-Zhu Liu
AU  - Cheng-Gang Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
JO  - Frontiers in Oncology
DO  - 10.3389/fonc.2026.1957469
UR  - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.1957469/full
AB  - Background: Programmable messenger RNA (mRNA) platforms can encode tumor antigens or immunomodulators, enabling coordinated antigen delivery and immune modulation. Yet the literature spans cancer vaccination, delivery engineering, immune biology, and adjacent infectious-disease research, making its structure and evidentiary boundaries difficult to discern. We mapped this cross-domain corpus to clarify its development, organization, and relevance to cancer-associated immune escape.  Methods: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Scopus on July 29, 2026, for English-language Articles and Reviews published since 2006. The strategy combined programmable or therapeutic mRNA, cancer, and immune-escape-related concepts. R-based analyses summarized the number of publications (NP), total citations (TC), and collaboration patterns; BERTopic modeled titles and abstracts after entity-aware preprocessing. Independent two-author review supported the five topic labels and characterized the outliers, and robustness was assessed across alternative clustering configurations.  Results: The dataset comprised 756 publications (NP = 756). Annual output increased more than fourfold in 2021 and reached NP = 182 in 2025. China (NP = 291; 38.49%) and the United States (NP = 146; 19.31%) accounted for nearly 58% of corresponding-author publications. Sichuan University and Frontiers in Immunology ranked first in institutional and journal output, respectively. Nature had the highest retained source-record citation total (TC = 2,326). BERTopic assigned 745 publications to five topics, while 11 of 756 records remained outliers (1.46%). The topics represented mRNA delivery and immunomodulatory cancer-vaccine research (52.1%), SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in oncology and immunotherapy settings (23.6%), therapeutic mRNA cancer-vaccine platforms (13.3%), tumor-antigen discovery and immune-subtype stratification (8.6%), and mRNA-vaccine immunogenicity during autoimmune immunosuppression (2.4%).  Conclusions: Publication activity in the retrieved cross-domain corpus expanded rapidly after 2020. The corpus included both direct cancer-mRNA research and adjacent platform or immune-response literature. By distinguishing these components and identifying thematic connections among delivery, antigen selection, immune context, and collaboration, the analysis provides an evidence-navigation framework for prioritizing systematic reviews, mechanistic studies, and clinical evaluation. The map does not itself establish therapeutic efficacy.
SN  - 2234-943X
ER  -