AccScience Publishing / AN / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AN025440107
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Mapping trends and hotspots in research on radiotherapy for diffuse midline glioma: A bibliometric analysis

Zhengyu Zhang1 ,  Yuan Yuan2 ,  Xiaoxin Wu3,4* ,  Liang Zhang4 ,  David J. Daniels4,5*
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1 Medical Records Department, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
2 Medical Records Department, Women and Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
3 State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
4 Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America
5 Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America
Advanced Neurology, 025440107 https://doi.org/10.36922/AN025440107
Received: 30 October 2025 | Revised: 7 February 2026 | Accepted: 10 February 2026 | Published online: 22 April 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is a malignant nervous system tumor that primarily affects children and adolescents. This study aims to evaluate the research trends and hotspots on radiotherapy for DMG through bibliometric analysis. Global publications on DMG radiotherapy from 2005 to 2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. A total of 521 publications from 47 countries were analyzed. The United States was the leading country in this field. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Harvard University, and the University of Washington were the top 3 institutions in terms of contribution. Alberto Broniscer published 20 articles, ranking first in the number of publications. Stephanie Puget had the highest citation/article ratio (104.09). However, cooperation among active authors was limited. Journal of Neuro-Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, and Child’s Nervous System were the top three journals in terms of the number of published articles. After 2020, the most prevalent keywords in research on DMG radiotherapy included “DMG,” “blood–brain barrier,” and “H3K27M.” Citation bursts of the keywords “DMG,” “H3K27M,” “pediatric high grade,” “therapy,” “classification,” “CNS (central nervous system),” and “intrinsic pontine glioma” were observed in 2024. The current research hotspots include molecular subtype classification of DMG and molecular mechanism-driven precision treatment of DMG. The discovery of the H3K27M mutation has changed our understanding of this deadly disease. Radiotherapy combined with targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and other treatment methods has emerged as a research trend. Cooperation among different researchers should be strengthened to promote research on radiotherapy for DMG.

Keywords
Diffuse midline glioma
Radiotherapy
Bibliometric analysis
Trends
Hotspots
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Youth Project (82300004) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFC2309904 and 2024YFC3506600). The funding sources had no role in the study design, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
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Advanced Neurology, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9619 Print ISSN: 3060-8589, Published by AccScience Publishing
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