Global trends in the health economics field of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors: A bibliometric and visualized study

Sicen Lai; Licong Xu; Liang Zhang; Lanyuan Peng; Yixin Li; Yuancheng Liu; Nianzhou Yu; Wangqing Chen; Kai Huang

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1141075

Global trends in the health economics field of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors: A bibliometric and visualized study

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Mar 22:14:1141075. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1141075. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sicen Lai^{1

2

3

4}, Licong Xu^{1

2

3

5}, Liang Zhang⁶, Lanyuan Peng^{1

2

3

5}, Yixin Li^{1

2

3

5}, Yuancheng Liu^{1

2

3

5}, Nianzhou Yu^{1

2

3

5}, Wangqing Chen^{1

2

3

5}, Kai Huang^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁴ XiangYa School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁵ National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁶ Department of Dermatology, Wuhan No. 1 Hospital, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Inhibitors of programmed cell death protein 1 and its associated ligand (PD-L1) are widely used in cancer treatment. However, medical costs and benefits of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors need attention owing to differences in response rates among individuals. This study explored global trends in the health economics field of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors to enhance their worldwide development. Bibliometric analysis of all documents currently indexed in Web of Science Core Collection from inception to 2022 was performed. Publication year, authors, countries, institutes, and journals were analyzed by Bibliometrix package (version 3.2.1) in R (version 4.1.3). CiteSpace (version 6.1.R6) and VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) were used to analyze burst words, co-authorship of institutes, co-cited journals, and co-cited references, while figures were mainly drawn by Ggplot2 package (version 3.3.5) in R (version 4.1.3) and SCImago Graphica Beta (version 1.0.23). A total of 2020 documents related to the health economics of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors were identified, and 1,204 documents met the selection criteria for inclusion in the study. A rapid increase in the number of publications since 2019 was observed, but this increase stopped in 2022, revealing research saturation in the field. Value in Health (166 publications, 13.79% of total documents) had the most publications, while New England Journal of Medicine (2,890 co-citations) was the most co-cited journal. The United States was the leading contributor in this field with 506 publications and the top two productive institutes globally. The main hot topics included the cost-effectiveness of treatment with PD-1 and/or PD-L1 inhibitors, and the comparison between the cost-effectiveness of PD-/PD-L1 inhibitors and other drugs. There were substantial differences between developed and developing countries in the health economics field of PD-1 and/or PD-L1 inhibitors. The cost-effectiveness analysis of combined treatment with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and other drugs warrants further attention. Findings from this study may provide governments and pharmaceutical companies with a strong reference for future research.

Keywords: PD-1; PD-L1; bibliometric analysis; cancer immunotherapy; future trends; the health economic.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the science and technology innovation Program of Hunan Province (grant no. 2020RC3059), National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2021YFF1201205).