APJCP

Cancer
is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide,
characterized by irregular cell growth. Cytotoxicity or killing tumor
cells that divide rapidly is the basic function of chemotherapeutic
drugs. However, these agents can damage normal dividing cells, leading
to adverse effects in the body. In view of great advances in cancer
therapy, which are increasingly reported each year, we quantitatively
and qualitatively evaluated the papers published between 1981 and
December 2015, with a closer look at the highly cited papers (HCPs), for
a better understanding of literature related to cytotoxicity in cancer
therapy. Online documents in the Web of Science (WOS) database were
analyzed based on the publication year, the number of times they were
cited, research area, source, language, document type, countries,
organizationenhanced and funding agencies. A total of 3,473 publications
relevant to the target key words were found in the WOS database over 35
years and 86% of them (n=2,993) were published between 20002015. These
papers had been cited 54,330 times without self citation from 1981 to
2015. Of the 3,473 publications, 17 (3,557citations) were the most
frequently cited ones between 2005 and 2015. The topmost HCP was about
generating a comprehensive preclinical database (CCLE) with 825 (23.2%)
citations. One third of the remaining HCPs had focused on drug discovery
through improving conventional therapeutic agents such as metformin and
ginseng. Another 33% of the HCPs concerned engineered nanoparticles
(NPs) such as polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendritic polymers, PTX/SPIOloaded
PLGAs and cell derived NPs to increase drug effectiveness and decrease
drug toxicity in cancer therapy. The remaining HCPs reported novel
factors such as miR205, Nrf2 and p27 suggesting their interference with
development of cancer in targeted cancer therapy. In conclusion,
analysis of 35year publications and HCPs on cytotoxicity in cancer in
the present report provides opportunities for a better understanding the
extent of topics published and may help future research in this area.