What the world is publishing

Every object in OnCo has a literature query. Once a week we ask Europe PMC how many papers matched it in each year and in the last twelve months, then rank topics by how fast they are growing. This is the pulse of research effort, not of results: a surge in papers is a surge in attention.

Snapshot: 2026-09-08Objects tracked: 546Source: Europe PMC REST APIRefreshed weekly by GitHub Actions

Rising fastest, all kinds

Papers in the last 12 months against the 12 months before, for topics with at least 20 prior papers so a small base cannot fake a surge.

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	In vivo CAR-T	technology	102	22	+364%
2	Pathology & radiology foundation models	technology	152	35	+334%
3	Tarlatamab	drug	116	50	+132%
4	Platinum + etoposide (EP / CE)	drug	80	35	+129%
5	Ivonescimab	drug	54	24	+125%
6	Inavolisib	drug	45	22	+105%
7	TROP2	target	296	146	+103%
8	Talquetamab	drug	93	46	+102%
9	Polatuzumab vedotin	drug	103	52	+98%
10	Disitamab vedotin	drug	92	49	+88%
11	Elranatamab	drug	86	46	+87%
12	DLL3	target	147	80	+84%
13	Serplulimab	drug	53	29	+83%
14	Zolbetuximab	drug	93	51	+82%
15	Patient-derived organoids	technology	1,079	596	+81%
16	GPRC5D	target	112	62	+81%
17	Armoured, logic-gated & next-gen CARs	technology	63	35	+80%
18	Ciltacabtagene autoleucel	drug	104	59	+76%
19	AI trial matching & clinical decision support	technology	821	470	+75%
20	Mirvetuximab soravtansine	drug	78	45	+73%
21	Pirtobrutinib	drug	72	42	+71%
22	Digital pathology & AI	technology	424	254	+67%
23	Gemcitabine + cisplatin	drug	171	103	+66%
24	Site-specific conjugation & linker chemistry	technology	164	99	+66%
25	Glofitamab	drug	82	50	+64%
26	Nectin-4	target	196	122	+61%
27	Lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan	drug	70	45	+56%
28	FLOT (5-FU, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, docetaxel)	drug	113	73	+55%
29	Revumenib	drug	49	32	+53%
30	Folate receptor alpha	target	124	81	+53%

Technologies

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	Pathology & radiology foundation models	technology	152	35	+334%
2	Patient-derived organoids	technology	1,079	596	+81%
3	Armoured, logic-gated & next-gen CARs	technology	63	35	+80%
4	AI trial matching & clinical decision support	technology	821	470	+75%
5	Digital pathology & AI	technology	424	254	+67%
6	Site-specific conjugation & linker chemistry	technology	164	99	+66%
7	AI-driven drug & target discovery	technology	208	136	+53%
8	Germline (hereditary) testing	technology	683	465	+47%
9	MRD / molecular residual disease testing	technology	1,112	760	+46%
10	FLASH radiotherapy	technology	167	115	+45%
11	Intravesical therapy (BCG, chemotherapy, devices, gene and viral therapy)	technology	81	56	+45%
12	STING & innate immune agonists	technology	1,326	924	+44%
13	T-cell engagers (bispecific)	technology	342	239	+43%
14	Functional (ex vivo) drug testing	technology	145	102	+42%
15	Topoisomerase-I inhibitors (and ADC payloads)	technology	650	458	+42%

Products

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	Vepdegestrant	drug	38	16	+138%
2	Tarlatamab	drug	116	50	+132%
3	Platinum + etoposide (EP / CE)	drug	80	35	+129%
4	FAP-2286 (177Lu / 68Ga)	drug	41	18	+128%
5	Ivonescimab	drug	54	24	+125%
6	Inavolisib	drug	45	22	+105%
7	Talquetamab	drug	93	46	+102%
8	Signatera	drug	30	15	+100%
9	Polatuzumab vedotin	drug	103	52	+98%
10	Disitamab vedotin	drug	92	49	+88%
11	Elranatamab	drug	86	46	+87%
12	Serplulimab	drug	53	29	+83%
13	Zolbetuximab	drug	93	51	+82%
14	Futibatinib	drug	29	16	+81%
15	Ciltacabtagene autoleucel	drug	104	59	+76%

Targets

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	TROP2	target	296	146	+103%
2	DLL3	target	147	80	+84%
3	GPRC5D	target	112	62	+81%
4	Nectin-4	target	196	122	+61%
5	Folate receptor alpha	target	124	81	+53%
6	BCMA	target	518	341	+52%
7	B7-H3	target	345	229	+51%
8	Glypican-3	target	213	147	+45%
9	CD70	target	105	73	+44%
10	Mesothelin	target	178	124	+44%
11	Claudin 18.2	target	162	114	+42%
12	KMT2A (MLL) rearrangement	target	341	241	+41%
13	CEACAM5	target	70	50	+40%
14	gp100 (PMEL)	target	52	38	+37%
15	MAGE-A4	target	34	25	+36%

Cancers

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma	cancer	2,619	2,114	+24%
2	Neuroendocrine tumours	cancer	169	142	+19%
3	Hodgkin lymphoma	cancer	1,430	1,280	+12%
4	Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)	cancer	3,747	3,363	+11%
5	Renal cell carcinoma	cancer	2,956	2,668	+11%
6	Neuroblastoma (paediatric)	cancer	6,022	5,485	+10%
7	Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma	cancer	1,480	1,379	+7%
8	Multiple myeloma	cancer	3,061	2,855	+7%
9	HER2-positive breast cancer	cancer	491	460	+7%
10	Small-cell lung cancer	cancer	8,054	7,546	+7%
11	Non-small-cell lung cancer	cancer	7,086	6,646	+7%
12	Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia	cancer	163	155	+5%
13	Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma	cancer	1,619	1,572	+3%
14	Colorectal cancer	cancer	10,472	10,376	+1%
15	Mesothelioma	cancer	571	572	0%

Most published, last 12 months

#	Topic	Kind	Last 12 mo	Prior 12 mo	Change
1	Azacitidine	drug	17,220	16,606	+4%
2	Decitabine + cedazuridine (oral)	drug	16,887	16,325	+3%
3	Single-cell & spatial profiling	technology	15,315	11,761	+30%
4	RNA sequencing & expression profiling	technology	13,617	11,307	+20%
5	Colorectal cancer	cancer	10,472	10,376	+1%
6	MET	target	10,045	8,646	+16%
7	Hepatocellular carcinoma	cancer	8,871	9,068	-2%
8	Immune checkpoint inhibitors	technology	8,855	7,368	+20%
9	Cytotoxic chemotherapy	technology	8,641	9,247	-7%
10	AKT	target	8,488	7,739	+10%
11	MRI	technology	8,348	8,231	+1%
12	Small-cell lung cancer	cancer	8,054	7,546	+7%
13	Prostate cancer	cancer	7,865	7,929	-1%
14	Nintedanib	drug	7,129	6,638	+7%
15	Ultrasound	technology	7,093	7,250	-2%
16	Non-small-cell lung cancer	cancer	7,086	6,646	+7%
17	PD-L1	target	6,196	5,271	+18%
18	CT (computed tomography)	technology	6,193	6,053	+2%
19	EGFR	target	6,104	5,538	+10%
20	Melanoma	cancer	6,048	6,477	-7%

Method and caveats

Queries search title and abstract for the object’s name, brand, code, or curated phrases, and require a cancer word unless the object is a cancer. Query strings are shown on each object page under “Latest papers”.
Counts use Europe PMC’s first-publication date (FIRST_PDATE), so preprints and ahead-of-print articles count when they first appear. Europe PMC covers PubMed, PMC, Agricola, and major preprint servers.
Growth is (last 12 months − prior 12 months) / prior 12 months. Objects with fewer prior papers than the threshold are excluded from growth rankings but appear in the volume table.
Name collisions inflate some counts (a code like “MK-2870” is precise; a word like “PET” is not). Treat the ranking as a prompt to look, not as a measurement.
The current year is partial, so its bar is drawn lighter.