ABSTRACT
Prostate cancer is currently one of the most common malignancies that endanger the lives and health of elderly men. In recent years, immunotherapy, which exploits the activation of anti-cancer host immune cells to accomplish tumor-killing effects, has emerged as a new study avenue in the treatment of prostate cancer. As an important component of immunotherapy, cancer vaccines have a unique position in the precision treatment of malignant tumors. Monocyte cell vaccines, dendritic cell vaccines, viral vaccines, peptide vaccines, and DNA/mRNA vaccines are the most often used prostate cancer vaccines. Among them, Sipuleucel-T, as a monocyte cell-based cancer vaccine, is the only FDA-approved therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer, and has a unique position and role in advancing the development of immunotherapy for prostate cancer. However, due to its own limitations, Sipuleucel-T has not been widely adopted. Meanwhile, owing to the complexity of immunotherapy and the specificity of prostate cancer, the remaining prostate cancer vaccines have not shown good clinical benefit in large randomized phase II and phase III trials, and further in-depth studies are still needed.
Subject(s)
Aged , Humans , Male , Cancer Vaccines/therapeutic use , Immunotherapy , Prostate/pathology , Prostatic Neoplasms/pathology , Tissue Extracts/therapeutic useABSTRACT
Objective To visualize and analyze the literature related to immunotherapy for prostate cancer published in the past 20 years through bibliometric analysis, and to explore the research progress and cutting-edge trends in this field. Methods The Web of Science core collection database was searched for literature related to immunotherapy for prostate cancer published from 2002 to 2021. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to visualize and analyze the data and map the evolution of hotspots. Results There were 2 326 papers were finally included after excluding irrelevant studies. The field of immunotherapy for prostate cancer is in a rapid development stage; the United States has a great influence and China has a significant latecomer advantage; the National Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and University of California, San Francisco are the main research institutions; American authors Gulley JL, Schlom J and Japanese author Itoh K have the highest number of publications. Currently, the main research hotspot is immune checkpoint inhibitors, and high-quality clinical trials are continuing to drive this process forward. Conclusion The exploration of novel immune pathways and the combination of different therapies will be the main trend of future research in immunotherapy for prostate cancer.