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A literature analysis on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy (anti-VEGF) using a bibliometric approach

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Abstract

We performed the current study to assess the citation performance of research works on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy. We searched Web of Science (WoS) to identify relevant publications and analyze them with reference to their publication year, journal title, citation count, WoS category, and article type. The bibliometric software (VOSviewer) was used for citation analyses of countries and journals and to generate a term map that visualizes the recurring terms appearing in the titles and abstracts of published articles. The literature search resulted in 7364 articles, with a mean citation count of 26.2. Over half of them (50.2%) were published during the past 5 years. Original articles constituted the majority (67.8%). The publications were mainly classified into WoS categories of ophthalmology (43.2%) and oncology (20.6%). The most prolific ophthalmology and cancer journals were Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (7.3%) and Cancer Research (1.4%), respectively. The correlation between journal impact factor and citation count was weak to moderate (for journals with impact factor up to 5 and 10, respectively), and open-access articles had significantly more citations than non-open-access articles (p < 0.001). The frequently targeted tumors by anti-VEGF therapy included metastatic colorectal cancer (196; 49.2 citations per article (CPA)), breast cancers (167; 37.2 CPA), and renal cell carcinoma (122; 38.2 CPA). The frequently targeted eye pathologies were age-related macular degeneration (828; 18.2 CPA), diabetic macular edema (466; 10.8 CPA), and diabetic retinopathy (358; 31.9 CPA). These results indicate that anti-VEGF therapy has a wide range of applications and its publications are highly cited.

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Abbreviations

CPA:

citations per article

VEGF:

vascular endothelial growth factor

WoS:

Web of Science

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Applied Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., China

    Andy Wai Kan Yeung

  2. Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt

    Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim

  3. Department of Ophthalmology and Micro-Technology, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

    Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim & Kazuaki Kadonosono

  4. Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdelrahman Ibrahim Abushouk

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  1. Andy Wai Kan Yeung
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  2. Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim
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  3. Abdelrahman Ibrahim Abushouk
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  4. Kazuaki Kadonosono
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Contributions

AWKY and MMAD conceived the work. AWKY acquired data. AWKY, MMAD, and AIA drafted the work. AWKY, AIA, KK, and MMAD analyzed data. MMAD and KK critically revised the work. All authors have approved the final content of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andy Wai Kan Yeung or Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim.

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Yeung, A.W.K., Abdel-Daim, M.M., Abushouk, A.I. et al. A literature analysis on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy (anti-VEGF) using a bibliometric approach. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 392, 393–403 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-019-01629-y

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