JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Lin et al

Original Paper

Analysis of the Trends in Publications on Clinical Cancer Researchin Mainland China from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
Results (SEER) Database: Bibliometric Study
Min-Qiang Lin1*, MSc; Chen-Lu Lian2*, MD; Ping Zhou2*, MD; Jian Lei3, MD; Jun Wang2, MD; Li Hua3, MD; Juan
Zhou3, MD; San-Gang Wu2, MD
1

Department of Scientific Management, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

2

Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

3

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China*

these authors contributed equally

Corresponding Author:
San-Gang Wu, MD
Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University
55 Zhenhai Road
XiamenChina
Phone: 86 5922139531
Email: wusg@xmu.edu.cn

Abstract
Background: The application of China’s big data sector in cancer research is just the beginning. In recent decades, more andmore Chinese scholars have used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database for clinical cancer research.
A comprehensive bibliometric study is required to analyze the tendency of Chinese scholars to utilize the SEER database forclinical cancer research and provide a reference for the future of big data analytics.
Objective: Our study aimed to assess the trend of publications on clinical cancer research in mainland China from the SEER
database.
Methods: We performed a PubMed search to identify papers published with data from the SEER database in mainland China
until August 31, 2020.
Results: A total of 1566 papers utilizing the SEER database that were authored by investigators in mainland China wereidentified. Over the past years, significant growth in studies based on the SEER database was observed (P<.001). The top 5
research topics were breast cancer (213/1566, 13.6%), followed by colorectal cancer (185/1566, 11.8%), lung cancer (179/1566,
11.4%), gastrointestinal cancer (excluding colorectal cancer; 149/1566, 9.5%), and genital system cancer (93/1566, 5.9%).
Approximately 75.2% (1178/1566) of papers were published from the eastern coastal region of China, and Fudan University
Shanghai Cancer Center (Shanghai, China) was the most active organization. Overall, 267 journals were analyzed in this study,of which Oncotarget was the most contributing journal (136/267, 50.9%). Of the 1566 papers studied, 585 (37.4%) were publishedin the second quartile, 489 (31.2%) in the third quartile, 312 (19.9%) in the first quartile, and 80 (5.1%) in the fourth quartile,
with 100 (6.4%) having an unknown Journal Citation Reports ranking.
Conclusions: Clinical cancer research based on the SEER database in mainland China underwent constant and rapid growthduring recent years. High-quality and comprehensive cancer databases based on Chinese demographic data are urgently needed.
(JMIR Med Inform 2020;8(11):e21931) doi: 10.2196/21931
KEYWORDS
cancer; China; data collection; bibliometrics; PubMed; SEER program

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 1
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Introduction
BackgroundLin et alto analyze the contribution of Chinese scholars to clinical cancer
research and provide a specific clinical reference for the futureof big data analytics.

The incidence of human cancer is increasing worldwide. It isestimated that the global burden of cancer will increase by morethan 60% by 2040 [1]. Cancer has been an important publichealth problem in low- and middle-income countries, as wellas in upper-middle-income countries. Cancer research has
become one of the leading research fields of bioscience aroundthe world, and the number of publications on cancer increases
at a rate of more than 2% per year [2].

Objective

A high-quality cancer database can provide researchers withconvenient data analysis and build a sharing platform among
researchers, which could pave the way for revealing themechanism of tumorigenesis and its progression [3]. To shareclinical data with different regions, some other countries plunged
into building multicenter databases far ahead of China [4]. In
1973, the US National Cancer Institute combined the tumor
registration stations in several regions to form the Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The SEER
program is a globally accessible authoritative cancer database
representing approximately 34.6% of the US population, which
includes non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic,
and Asian populations [5]. The SEER program collects data on
patient demographics, tumor location, tumor stage, first courseof therapy, and vital status. The SEER database is a valuable,
population-based resource that can be used to study the diagnosis
and treatment across demographic characteristics and geographic
areas, and it has become a unique research resource for oncology
practice. It provides morbidity and mortality data on
various histopathological subtypes, and data on molecularcharacteristics are also expanding. The database is being further
developed to capture other biomarker data and the results ofspecific populations, and to expand the biobank to support
cutting-edge cancer research that can improve oncology
practices. Therefore, the SEER program plays an important rolein clinical cancer research, public health management, andpolicy making [5].

Using the search terms “Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
Results or SEER, and China,” we identified related publications
from the PubMed database before August 31, 2020. PubMed
is a free, publicly available database established by the US
National Library of Medicine [15]. As one of the largest
databases in the life science and biomedical fields worldwide,
it comprises more than 30 million biomedical abstracts fromjournals and online books.

In recent years, China has made significant progress in clinicalcancer research, and many studies have gained internationalrecognition [6-10]. Although major hospitals have establisheddatabases in China, they have not shared their research findings
with one another. Since the SEER database is a globally
accessible authoritative cancer database, more and more
scholars, particularly those from China, have used it to conductclinical cancer research in recent years. There are a lot ofdifferences between the United States and China, including their
population’s genetic makeup, health system, health services,
health insurance, health policies, socioeconomic status, andculture. Therefore, the research findings in the SEER cancer
registries may not be generalizable to the people of China.
However, several recent studies found that the characteristicsof the data from the SEER program were consistent with thosefrom Chinese institutions [11-14]. There is currently nocomprehensive bibliometric study that has characterized theclinical cancer research in China based on the SEER database.
Carrying out a comprehensive bibliometric analysis is helpful
http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of clinical cancer
research using SEER data from mainland China using abibliometric approach.

Methods
Search Strategy

Publications with first authors or corresponding authors affiliatedwith mainland Chinese institutions were included in the study,
while those that utilized the SEER-Medicare database(SEER-Medicare data are not released outside of the UnitedStates) and special types of publications, including comments,
letters, and reviews, were excluded. Papers from Taiwan
Province, Hong Kong, and Macao Special Administrative
Regions were also excluded from this analysis. This study wasapproved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospitalof Xiamen University (Xiamen, Fujian, China).

Indices
The indices analyzed in this study included the number andtrend of publications, research topics, type of affiliation(university, hospital, or other research center), geographicaldistribution, journal, Journal Citation Reports (JCR) ranking,and status of international cooperation.

Statistical Analysis
Descriptive statistical analyses were used in this study.
Characteristics were evaluated and analyzed using Microsoft
Excel, and linear regression was performed using SPSS
statistical software (version 22.0; IBM Corp). P values <.05
were considered statistically significant.

Results
Number and Trend of Publications
The flowchart of publication selection for this study is shownin Figure 1. We retrieved a total of 1667 publications, of which
1566 publications were included in this study. Figure 2 shows
the trend in publications on clinical cancer research using the
SEER database in mainland China (R2=0.430, P<.001). Chinese
authors first used the SEER database in 1999. The single paperin the SEER database that was published in 1999 was authored
by Guo et al [16], who were affiliated with the People’s Hospitalof Beijing Medical University and had collaborated with Huvos
and colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 2
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICSin the United States. Interestingly, there were no papers from
Chinese institutions that utilized the SEER database during the
11 years from 2000 to the end of 2011. However, the numberof papers published per year increased rapidly from 2012 to

Lin et al
2019: 2012 (n=6), 2013 (n=12), 2014 (n=19), 2015 (n=43),
2016 (n=96), 2017 (n=181), 2018 (n=288), and 2019 (n=459).
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there were 461
publications as of August 31, 2020.

Figure 1. Flowchart of publication selection for the study.

Figure 2. The trends in publications on clinical cancer research in mainland China from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results databasebetween 1999 and 2020.

Research Topics
Table 1 presents the main research topics of the 1566 papers
included in the study. Breast cancer was the most frequently
http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

researched topic (213/1566, 13.6%), followed by colorectal
cancer (185/1566, 11.8%), lung cancer (179/1566, 11.4%),
gastrointestinal cancer (excluding colorectal cancer; 149/1566,
9.5%), and genital system cancer (93/1566, 5.9%). These top
JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 3
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS
5 research topics were the focus of 52.3% (819/1566) of the
included papers.
Figure 3 shows the publication trends on the top 5 cancer sites
in mainland China over time. It shows an increasing interest in
research exploring breast cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal
cancer (excluding colorectal cancer), colorectal cancer, andLin et al
genital system cancer (in both genders). Chinese researchers
were also studying rare cancers. A total of 164 papers discussed
rare cancers, such as pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-likecarcinoma, spindle cell carcinoma, thymoma, and adenoid cystic
carcinoma of the breast, and this number was expanding rapidly
in recent years.

Table 1. Main cancer research topics of publications in mainland China identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.
Main cancer research topics

Number of publications

Breast cancer

213

Colorectal cancer

185

Lung cancer

179

Gastrointestinal cancer (excluding colorectal cancer)

149

Genital system cancer

93

Pancreatic cancer

83

Liver cancer

72

Thyroid cancer

62

Esophageal cancer

62

Bone cancer

49

Figure 3. The trends in publications on the top 5 cancer sites in mainland China from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between
2012 and 2020.

Geographical Distribution of Publications
Figure 4A shows the distribution of the publications using the
SEER database whose first authors were affiliated with Chinese
institutions. These first authors who used the SEER databaseto publish papers came from 25 provinces and municipalities
of China. Among all of these regions, first authors were mostoften affiliated with institutions in Shanghai (369/1566, 23.6%),
followed by Guangdong (199/1566, 12.7%), Zhejiang

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX(174/1566, 11.1%), Hubei (102/1566, 6.5%), and Jiangsu(102/1566, 6.5%).
Figure 4B shows the distribution of publications using the SEER
database whose corresponding authors were affiliated with
Chinese institutions. These corresponding authors who used theSEER database to publish papers came from 27 provinces ormunicipalities of China. A similar distribution was observed in
the papers whose corresponding authors were affiliated with
Chinese institutions, mostly concentrated in Shanghai,
Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Hubei.

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 4
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Lin et al

Figure 4. The distribution of the publications stratified by first authors (A) and corresponding authors (B) using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, andEnd Results database.

Top 10 Most Contributing Author Affiliations
The top 10 affiliated organizations of the most contributing firstauthors and corresponding authors extracted from the 1566
publications are presented in Tables 2 and 3. More than 75%(1178/1566) of papers were published from the eastern coastal
region of China, Overall, the organization that was affiliatedwith the top contributing first authors was Fudan University
Shanghai Cancer Center (163/1566, 10.4%), followed by Sun
Yat-sen University Cancer Center (73/1566, 4.7%), the First
Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University (48/1566,
3.1%), West China Hospital of Sichuan University (42/1566,
2.7%), the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University
School of Medicine (41/1566, 2.6%), and the First AffiliatedHospital of Xiamen University (41/1566, 2.6%). All affiliationsof first authors extracted from the 1566 publications (excluding
three papers whose first authors were affiliated with the UnitedStates) were classified into three sectors (university, hospital,
and government agency). The most contributing institutionsector was hospital (1501/1563, 96.0%), followed by university(60/1563, 3.8%), and government agency (2/1563, 0.1%). Of

the 1501 papers from hospitals, 1459 (97.2%) publications were
produced from the best tertiary hospitals, and 1475 (98.3%)
were from hospitals affiliated with universities.
The organization that was affiliated with the top contributing
corresponding authors was Fudan University Shanghai Cancer
Center (165/1566, 10.5%), followed by Sun Yat-sen University
Cancer Center (77/1566, 4.9%), Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan
University (43/1566, 2.7%), the First Affiliated Hospital of
Xi’an Jiaotong University (43/1566, 2.7%), and the Second
Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine(42/1566, 2.7%). All affiliations of corresponding authors
extracted from the 1566 papers (excluding 35 publications’organization affiliations of corresponding authors affiliated with
the United States, Germany, Australia, and Japan) were alsoclassified into three sectors (university, hospital, and government
agency). Similarly, the most contributing institution sector was
hospital (1474/1531, 96.3%), followed by university (54/1531,
3.5%), and government agency (3/1531, 0.2%). In the 1474
papers whose corresponding authors came from hospitals, 1440
(97.7%) publications were from best tertiary hospitals, and 1458
(98.9%) were from hospitals affiliated with universities.

Table 2. Top 10 affiliated organizations of the most contributing first authors.
Affiliations of first authors

Number of publications

Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center

163

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center73

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University

48

West China Hospital of Sichuan University

42

The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University

41

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University

41

Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University

39

Affiliated Union Hospital of Fujian Medical University

33

Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology

32

Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University27

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 5
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Lin et al

Table 3. Top 10 affiliated organizations of the most contributing corresponding authors.
Affiliations of corresponding authors

Number of publications

Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center

165

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

77

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University

43

Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University

43

The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University

42

West China Hospital of Sichuan University

42

Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology

33

Affiliated Union Hospital of Fujian Medical University

31

Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University

27

Shandong Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University

27

Journals and Journal Visibility
Overall, 267 journals were analyzed in the present study, of
which the most contributing journal was Oncotarget (136/267,
50.9%), followed by Cancer Medicine (98/267, 36.7%), Journalof Cancer (76/267, 28.5%), Medicine (Baltimore) (72/267,
27.0%), and Cancer Management and Research (69/267, 25.8%).
The JCR ranking was retrieved from Web of Science, a global

citation database. The top 30 most common journals extracted
from the 1566 publications are shown in Figure 5. The
distribution of the JCR ranking of the 1566 publications is
depicted in Figure 6. A total of 37.4% (585/1566) of the
publications were published in the second quartile, followed by
the third quartile (489/1566, 31.2%), first quartile (312/1566,
19.9%), unknown JCR ranking (100/1566, 6.4%), and fourth
quartile (80/1566, 5.1%).

Figure 5. The distribution of the publications stratified by the top 30 most common journals.

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 6
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Lin et al

Figure 6. The distribution of the 1566 papers stratified by journal rankings published from Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Q1: first quartile; Q2:
second quartile; Q3: third quartile; Q4: fourth quartile.

International Cooperation
A total of 180 publications were jointly produced byorganizations from China and 23 other countries including theUnited States (114/180, 63.3%), Russia (17/180, 9.4%), Italy(12/180, 6.7%), Australia (10/180, 5.6%), and Japan (10/180,
5.6%). Chinese institutions first cooperated with institutions
from other countries using the SEER database in 1999.

Similarly, no papers were jointly produced by institutions from
China and other countries utilizing the SEER database during
the 11 years from 2000 to the end of 2011. However, the numberof papers produced through international cooperation increased
substantially from 2016 (9/1566, 0.6%) to 2019 (65/1566, 4.2%).
As of August 31, 2020, a total of 45 papers had been publishedin the year 2020 with international cooperation (Figure 7).

Figure 7. The trends in publications with international cooperation using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 1999 and2020.

Discussion
The large sample size of the SEER database and strong statisticalguarantees for current cancer concerns add much clinical value
to research based on the SEER database. However, theapplication of China’s big data sector in cancer research is justthe beginning. In the recent decade, more and more Chinese
scholars have used the SEER database for clinical cancer
research. A comprehensive bibliometric study is required tohttp://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

analyze the tendency of Chinese scholars to utilize the SEER
database for clinical cancer research and provide a reference
for the future of big data analytics. In the present study, we
completed a bibliometric study of the SEER database-related
publications in China, some prominent characteristics of whichwere found. First, SEER database-related publications havemade continuous and rapid growth in China in recent years.
Second, the research topics mainly focused on high-incidence
and high-mortality cancers, such as breast cancer, colorectal
JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 7
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS
cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer (excluding colorectal
cancer), and genital system cancer. Third, publications regarding
clinical cancer research using the data from the SEER program
were mainly from the best tertiary hospitals in the eastern coastal
region of China.
Our study revealed a rapidly growing interest in clinical cancer
research from the SEER program in China. With the exceptionof 1 paper published in 1999, Chinese scholars did not utilize
the SEER database for clinical cancer research until 2012. This
trend has grown rapidly since 2012, reaching 459 papers in theyear 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed almost every
aspect of life and society in the year 2020. However, 461
publications were published in the first 8 months of 2020,
indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic has not had a negative
impact on publications in the SEER database. This phenomenon
might attribute to the development of cancer research andinformationization in China. Over the past decades, Chinese
researchers have gradually made more in-depth use of cancer
databases and noticed the important role of the SEER program.
This finding was consistent with other studies that havedemonstrated an increase in cancer research papers from China[17,18]. In addition, we noticed that not only Chinese scholars,
but also scholars from France [19,20], South Korea [21,22],Japan [23], Italy [24], and Switzerland [25], have used the SEER
database to conduct clinical cancer research.
With respect to the research topics, the SEER database-related
publications were unbalanced, mainly concentrated on breast
cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer,
and genital system cancer. Publications on these five cancer
sites of the SEER database accounted for 52.3% of all 1566
publications. This regular pattern of distribution of the research
topics was consistent with the top 5 cancer sites for estimatedcases worldwide for both sexes, which were lung cancer, breast
cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and stomach cancer[1]. Although these top 5 research topics have been widely
studied, Chinese researchers’ interest in them has increased
steadily. Moreover, the findings from the SEER studies havebeen introduced into the treatment guidelines of the National
Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines and theEuropean Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Guidelines,
which demonstrate the critical role of the SEER database inclinical cancer research [26,27].
In addition to playing a significant role in the study of thesehigh-incidence cancers, the SEER database is often used to
explore rare diseases. Because rare cancers are very uncommon,
it is difficult to collect data from a single institution. The SEER
database provided substantial valuable data for the study of rare
cancers and avoided the selection bias found in single-center
retrospective studies. Nevertheless, the results from the SEER
database are also retrospective, and prospective studies areneeded to validate the results from the SEER database. However,rare cancers are challenging to study prospectively because of
their low incidence. The latest NCCN and ESMO guidelines
cited several publications on rare cancers based on SEER data,such as male breast cancer, occult breast cancer, andmesenchymal chondrosarcoma [28-30]. Thus, these publications
based on SEER data provided insight to help clarify the
http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

Lin et alcharacteristics, treatment protocols, prognostic indicators, andrisk stratification of rare cancers [31,32].
With respect to geographical and institutional distribution,
papers published from China using the SEER database were
extremely unbalanced. More than 75% of papers were publishedfrom the eastern coastal region of China, which was the areawith the highest incidence of cancer morbidity in mainland
China [33]. In our analysis, more than 90% of publications were
produced by the best tertiary hospitals, while 4 of the top 5
contributing organizations were located in the eastern coastal
region of China. Regarding the population and economic levels,
high-quality medical resources are distributed unevenly in
China, with 71 of the 2018 top 100 hospitals in China situatedin the eastern coastal region of China [34-37]. In addition, mostmedical colleges in China are located in this region and could
provide resources for cancer research [38]. By relying on
universities, researchers at affiliated hospitals can get more
research support.
The findings from the SEER program may contribute to cancer
prevention and treatment, whether the cancer is common or
rare. Nevertheless, the SEER program still has its limitationsin that its vital statistics only consist of death and survival data,
and there are no data regarding locoregional recurrence anddistant metastasis after adopting the corresponding treatment.
In addition, the SEER database only represents people who livein the United States. Whether the results of SEER-based research
can be applied to other countries, especially to areas ofhigh-incidence cancers like China, needs to be verified by datafrom other countries. Some Chinese researchers combined theSEER database with their databases to conduct studies andfound that the characteristics of the data from the SEER program
were consistent with that from Chinese institutions [11-14].
This indicated that the SEER database could provide valuable
data for clinical oncology treatment in China. The above results
indicate that clinical cancer research based on the SEER
database may provide a valuable reference for clinical cancer
researchers in China.
China should establish cancer databases based on its
demographic characteristics. To our knowledge, Chinese cancer
registration work was started much later than in other upper
middle-income countries [4]. The number of cancer registries
in China has increased rapidly since 2002, while a significant
gap still exists between China and other upper middle-income
countries. At present, the items and contents of population-based
cancer data in China are limited. Therefore, high-quality cancer
databases based on Chinese demographic data are urgently
needed to better reflect the oncology practices in China [39-42].
The limitation of our analysis is that we only collectedpublications from the PubMed database, which may ignore
some publications that were not indexed in PubMed, resulting
in incomplete data.

Conclusions
In conclusion, our study suggests that clinical cancer research
regarding the SEER database has rapidly increased in China in
the past decade. High-quality and national comprehensive cancer

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 8
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS
registries from China are needed to provide a reference for the

Lin et al
future of big data analytics.

Authors' Contributions
MQL, CLL, PZ, and SGW were responsible for the study design; MQL, CLL, PZ, and SGW contributed to writing the report;
and JW, JL, LH, and JZ contributed to data analysis. All authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest
None declared.

References
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.

8.

9.

10.
11.

12.

13.

14.

15.
16.
17.
18.

Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimatesof incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 2018 Nov;68(6):394-424 [FREEFull text] [doi: 10.3322/caac.21492] [Medline: 30207593]
Lewison G, Purushotham A, Mason M, McVie G, Sullivan R. Understanding the impact of public policy on cancer research:a bibliometric approach. Eur J Cancer 2010 Mar;46(5):912-919. [doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2009.12.020] [Medline: 20064708]
Yang J, Cai HY. [The Cancer-related Bioinformatics Databases] [In Chinese]. Biotechnology Bulletin 2015
Nov;31(11):89-101. [doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2015.11.010]
Yang L. [Brief Review on Cancer Registration at Home and Abroad] [In Chinese]. China Cancer 2005 Dec;14(12):772-775.
[doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-0242.2005.12.001]
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Overview. National Cancer Institute. URL: https://seer.
cancer.gov/about/overview.html [accessed 2019-12-20] [WebCite Cache ID https://seer.cancer.gov/about/overview.html]
Zhang Y, Chen L, Hu GQ, Zhang N, Zhu XD, Yang KY, et al. Gemcitabine and Cisplatin Induction Chemotherapy inNasopharyngeal Carcinoma. N Engl J Med 2019 Sep 19;381(12):1124-1135. [doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1905287] [Medline:
31150573]
Chen Y, Ye J, Zhu Z, Zhao W, Zhou J, Wu C, et al. Comparing Paclitaxel Plus Fluorouracil Versus Cisplatin Plus Fluorouracil
in Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer: A Randomized, Multicenter, Phase III
Clinical Trial. J Clin Oncol 2019 Jul 10;37(20):1695-1703 [FREE Full text] [doi: 10.1200/JCO.18.02122] [Medline:
30920880]
Ma F, Ouyang Q, Li W, Jiang Z, Tong Z, Liu Y, et al. Pyrotinib or Lapatinib Combined With Capecitabine in HER2-Positive
Metastatic Breast Cancer With Prior Taxanes, Anthracyclines, and/or Trastuzumab: A Randomized, Phase II Study. J Clin
Oncol 2019 Oct 10;37(29):2610-2619. [doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.00108] [Medline: 31430226]
Luo Y, Luo L, Wampfler JA, Wang Y, Liu D, Chen Y, et al. 5-year overall survival in patients with lung cancer eligible
or ineligible for screening according to US Preventive Services Task Force criteria: a prospective, observational cohort
study. Lancet Oncol 2019 Aug;20(8):1098-1108 [FREE Full text] [doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30329-8] [Medline:
31255490]
Li Y, Wu YL. The second wave of checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
Lancet Oncol 2019 Jul;20(7):889-891. [doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30148-2] [Medline: 31122902]
Hua J, Zhang B, Xu J, Liu J, Ni Q, He J, et al. Determining the optimal number of examined lymph nodes for accurate
staging of pancreatic cancer: An analysis using the nodal staging score model. Eur J Surg Oncol 2019 Jun;45(6):1069-1076[FREE Full text] [doi: 10.1016/j.ejso.2019.01.018] [Medline: 30685327]
Shi X, Liu XK, An CM, Wei WJ, Tao Y, Ji Y, et al. Anatomic extent of lymph node metastases as an independent
prognosticator in node-positive major salivary gland carcinoma: A study of the US SEER database and a Chinese multicenter
cohort. Eur J Surg Oncol 2019 Nov;45(11):2143-2150. [doi: 10.1016/j.ejso.2019.06.029] [Medline: 31253544]
He J, Tsang JY, Xu X, Li J, Li M, Chao X, et al. AJCC 8th edition prognostic staging provides no better discriminatory
ability in prognosis than anatomical staging in triple negative breast cancer. BMC Cancer 2020 Jan 06;20(1):18 [FREEFull text] [doi: 10.1186/s12885-019-6494-3] [Medline: 31906874]
Liang W, He J, Shen Y, Shen J, He Q, Zhang J, et al. Impact of Examined Lymph Node Count on Precise Staging andLong-Term Survival of Resected Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Population Study of the US SEER Database and aChinese Multi-Institutional Registry. J Clin Oncol 2017 Apr 10;35(11):1162-1170 [FREE Full text] [doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.67.5140] [Medline: 28029318]
PubMed. URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ [accessed 2019-12-20]
Guo W, Xu W, Huvos AG, Healey JH, Feng C. Comparative frequency of bone sarcomas among different racial groups.
Chin Med J (Engl) 1999 Dec;112(12):1101-1104. [Medline: 11721448]
Zhang LP. [Oncology literature in China from 1994 to 2003: a bibliometric analysis] [In Chinese]. Chin J Med Libr Inf Sci
2006 Jan;15(1):67-69.
Zheng JJ, Zhang HR, Jing S. [A bibliometric analysis of oncology papers published by Chinese authors covered in SCI
from 2010 to 2012] [In Chinese]. Chin J Med Libr Inf Sci 2012 Dec;21(12):64-71. [doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-3982.2012.12.022]

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 9
(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS
19.

20.
21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.
28.
29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.

Benoit L, Pauly L, Phelippeau J, Koskas M. Impact of Sociodemographic Characteristics on the Quality of Care in the
Surgical Management of Endometrial Cancer: An Analysis of a National Database in the United States. Gynecol Obstet
Invest 2020 Mar;85(3):222-228. [doi: 10.1159/000506048] [Medline: 32224609]
Gonthier C, Douhnai D, Koskas M. Lymph node metastasis probability in young patients eligible for conservative managementof endometrial cancer. Gynecol Oncol 2020 Apr;157(1):131-135. [doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2020.02.021] [Medline: 32139150]
Kim BH, Kim S, Kim YI, Chang JH, Hwang K, Kim S, et al. Development of an Individualized Prediction Calculator for
the Benefit of Postoperative Radiotherapy in Patients with Surgically Resected De Novo Stage IV Breast Cancer. Cancers(Basel) 2020 Jul 29;12(8):2103 [FREE Full text] [doi: 10.3390/cancers12082103] [Medline: 32751136]
Jung J, Kim BH, Kim J, Oh S, Kim SJ, Lim CS, et al. Validating the ACOSOG Z0011 Trial Result: A Population-BasedStudy Using the SEER Database. Cancers (Basel) 2020 Apr 11;12(4):950 [FREE Full text] [doi: 10.3390/cancers12040950][Medline: 32290437]
Watanuki R, Hayashida T, Yokoe T, Kawai Y, Kikuchi M, Nakashoji A, et al. Impact of neoadjuvant and adjuvant
chemotherapy on invasive lobular carcinoma: A propensity score-matched analysis of SEER data. Breast J 2020 May 25(forthcoming). [doi: 10.1111/tbj.13884] [Medline: 32449173]
Rosiello G, Palumbo C, Pecoraro A, Luzzago S, Deuker M, Stolzenbach LF, et al. The effect of sex on disease stage andsurvival after radical cystectomy: a population-based analysis. Urol Oncol 2020 Oct 06 (forthcoming). [doi:10.1016/j.urolonc.2020.09.004] [Medline: 33036900]
Siebenhüner AR, Güller U, Warschkow R. Population-based SEER analysis of survival in colorectal cancer patients withor without resection of lung and liver metastases. BMC Cancer 2020 Mar;20(1):246. [doi: 10.1186/s12885-020-6710-1][Medline: 32293337]
Petkov VI, Miller DP, Howlader N, Gliner N, Howe W, Schussler N, et al. Breast-cancer-specific mortality in patientstreated based on the 21-gene assay: a SEER population-based study. NPJ Breast Cancer 2016 Jun;2:16017. [doi:10.1038/npjbcancer.2016.17] [Medline: 28721379]
Qiu M, Hu J, Yang D, Cosgrove DP, Xu R. Pattern of distant metastases in colorectal cancer: a SEER based study. Oncotarget
2015 Nov;6(36):38658-38666. [doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.6130] [Medline: 26484417]
Cloyd JM, Hernandez-Boussard T, Wapnir IL. Outcomes of partial mastectomy in male breast cancer patients: analysis of
SEER, 1983-2009. Ann Surg Oncol 2013 May;20(5):1545-1550. [doi: 10.1245/s10434-013-2918-5] [Medline: 23460016]
Wu SG, Zhang WW, Sun JY, Li FY, Lin HX, Chen YX, et al. Comparable Survival between Additional Radiotherapy and
Local Surgery in Occult Breast Cancer after Axillary Lymph Node Dissection: A Population-based Analysis. J Cancer
2017 Oct;8(18):3849-3855. [doi: 10.7150/jca.21217] [Medline: 29151972]
Schneiderman BA, Kliethermes SA, Nystrom LM. Survival in Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma Varies Based on Age andTumor Location: A Survival Analysis of the SEER Database. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2017 Mar;475(3):799-805 [FREE Fulltext] [doi: 10.1007/s11999-016-4779-2] [Medline: 26975384]
Zhuo M, Zheng Q, Chi Y, Jia B, Zhao J, Wu M, et al. Survival analysis via nomogram of surgical patients with malignant
pleural mesothelioma in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Thorac Cancer 2019 May;10(5):1193-1202[FREE Full text] [doi: 10.1111/1759-7714.13063] [Medline: 30951250]
Yin Z, Wang Y, Wu Y, Zhang X, Wang F, Wang P, et al. Age distribution and age-related outcomes of olfactory
neuroblastoma: a population-based analysis. Cancer Manag Res 2018 May;10:1359-1364 [FREE Full text] [doi:10.2147/CMAR.S151945] [Medline: 29881306]
Zheng RS, Sun KX, Zhang SW, Zeng HM, Zou XN, Chen R, et al. [Report of cancer epidemiology in China, 2015] [In
Chinese]. Zhonghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi 2019 Jan 23;41(1):19-28. [doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0253-3766.2019.01.005] [Medline:
30678413]
Yue LR, Sun LQ, Yang K, Li Z. [Research on the Status Quo and Strategy of China's Medical and Health System Reform
under the Background of Reform and Opening-up] [In Chinese]. China Health Industry 2019 Jul;16(19):185-188. [doi:10.16659/j.cnki.1672-5654.2019.19.185]
Shi BG, Wu SL. [Spatial Analysis of Access to Care:Geographic Distribution of China's Top Hospitals from The Perspectiveof Embedded Stratification Theory] [In Chinese]. Journal of Gansu Administration Institute 2019 Oct;5:94-104.
An YF. [Characters and Improvement Strategies of Distribution of High-Quality Medical Resources] [In Chinese]. Chinese
Health Quality Management 2011 Sep;18(5):110-113. [doi: 10.13912/j.cnki.chqm.2011.05.034]
Zhuang YQ, Liao XB, Wang XL, Yao SF. [Hospital Blue Book: China Hospital Competitiveness Report (2018-2019)] [In
Chinese]. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China); 2019.
ShanghaiRanking. URL: https://www.shanghairanking.com.cn/ [accessed 2019-12-20]
Wei WQ, He J. [Some thoughts on cancer registry in China: in the era of big data and informatization] [In Chinese].
Zhonghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi 2019 Jan 23;41(1):15-18. [doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0253-3766.2019.01.004] [Medline: 30678412]
Zhang SW, Chen WQ, Wang L. [The 30 Years of Cancer Registration in China] [In Chinese]. China Cancer 2009
Apr;18(4):256-259. [doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-0242.2007.07.001]
Chen W. [Establishing and Perfecting of Cancer Registration System in China] [In Chinese]. China Cancer 2011 Jan;20(1):7-9.
Chen W, Zheng R, Baade PD, Zhang S, Zeng H, Bray F, et al. Cancer statistics in China, 2015. CA Cancer J Clin 2016
Mar;66(2):115-132 [FREE Full text] [doi: 10.3322/caac.21338] [Medline: 26808342]

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

Lin et al

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 10(page number not for citation purposes)

JMIR MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Lin et al

Abbreviations
ESMO: European Society for Medical Oncology
JCR: Journal Citation Reports
NCCN: National Comprehensive Cancer Network
SEER: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results

Edited by C Lovis; submitted 29.06.20; peer-reviewed by P Yang, S Song; comments to author 06.09.20; revised version received
19.10.20; accepted 25.10.20; published 17.11.20
Please cite as:
Lin MQ, Lian CL, Zhou P, Lei J, Wang J, Hua L, Zhou J, Wu SG
Analysis of the Trends in Publications on Clinical Cancer Research in Mainland China from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, andEnd Results (SEER) Database: Bibliometric StudyJMIR Med Inform 2020;8(11):e21931
URL: http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/
doi: 10.2196/21931
PMID: 33200992©Min-Qiang Lin, Chen-Lu Lian, Ping Zhou, Jian Lei, Jun Wang, Li Hua, Juan Zhou, San-Gang Wu. Originally published in
JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 17.11.2020. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Informatics, is properly
cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as thiscopyright and license information must be included.

http://medinform.jmir.org/2020/11/e21931/

XSL• FO
RenderX

JMIR Med Inform 2020 | vol. 8 | iss. 11 | e21931 | p. 11(page number not for citation purposes)