title: The State of Lung Cancer Research: A Global Analysis.
abstract: Lung cancer is the leading cause of years of life lost because of cancer and is associated with the highest economic burden relative to other tumor types. Research remains at the cornerstone of achieving improved outcomes of lung cancer. We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of global lung cancer research between 2004 and 2013 (10 years).
  
  
  
  The study used bibliometrics to undertake a quantitative analysis of research output in the 24 leading countries in cancer research internationally on the basis of articles and reviews in the Web of Science (WoS) database.
  
  
  
  A total of 32,161 lung cancer research articles from 2085 different journals were analyzed. Lung cancer research represented only 5.6% of overall cancer research in 2013, a 1.2% increase since 2004. The commitment to lung cancer research has fallen in most countries apart from China and shows no correlation with lung cancer burden. A review of key research types demonstrated that diagnostics, screening, and quality of life research represent 4.3%, 1.8%, and 0.3% of total lung cancer research, respectively. The leading research types were genetics (20%), systemic therapies (17%), and prognostic biomarkers (16%). Research output is increasingly basic science, with a decrease in clinical translational research output during this period.
  
  
  
  Our findings have established that relative to the huge health, social, and economic burden associated with lung cancer, the level of world research output lags significantly behind that of research on other malignancies. Commitment to diagnostics, screening, and quality of life research is much lower than to basic science and medical research. The study findings are expected to provide the requisite knowledge to guide future cancer research programs in lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cancer Policy, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: ajay.aggarwal@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cancer Policy, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom; Evaluametrics Ltd., London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lewison
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Saliha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Idir
authors.affiliation: Oncology Europe, Africa, and Middle East Business Unit, Pfizer International Operations, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Prevent Cancer Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Aldige
authors.affiliation: Cancer Care, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Win
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Boerckel
authors.affiliation: International Prevention Research Institute, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Edward L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Trimble
authors.affiliation: Evaluametrics Ltd., London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roe
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Tariq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sethi
authors.affiliation: Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jesme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cancer Policy, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002681:China; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Bibliometrics; Health policy; Lung cancer; Research