Open Access

Doris Klingelhöfer, Yun Zhu, Markus Braun, Dörthe Brüggmann, Norman Schöffel, Jan David Alexander Groneberg

• Background: Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. The contemporary strong increase of the adenocarcinomas in Western countries and the high mortality rates require the intensification of prospective multinational studies. Methods: Therefore, this global health issue has been chosen for the bibliometric review of the global publication output. As source for meta and citation data, the Web of Science has been used and Density Equalizing Maps were applied for visualization. Results: 17,387 articles on EC could be identified. The years with publication and citation maxima correspond to the appearance of the most prolific articles. China is the most publishing country, followed by Japan and the USA. Germany and the UK ranked 4th and 5th. The analysis of the ratios articles and socio-economic parameters emphasizes the leading position of the Scandinavian countries and Japan. Here, the high-income countries come out on top. The high incidence regions are mainly represented by Chinese and Japanese research. The association of the publication output and the overall research funding could be shown. Conclusions: A strengthened international network increasingly consisting of the scientifically best positioned countries as well as more of the high incidence countries worldwide is mandatory for future research. The findings deliver scientists, clinicians and decision makers backgrounds for future decisions all over the world.