# Most-cited Medicine papers of 2021, with free PDFs

The 25 most-cited Medicine research papers published in 2021, ranked by citations in OpenAlex, with their original abstracts and free PDFs where available.

1. [Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3128646645) · 108,758 citations
2. [Cancer Statistics, 2021](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3119005666) · 16,557 citations
3. [2021 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3193598686) · 13,381 citations · Free PDF
4. [The 2021 WHO Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System: a summary](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3174246647) · 12,163 citations
5. [2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3197233987) · 6,509 citations
6. [Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2021 Update](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3122226502) · 5,783 citations
7. [Cancer statistics for the year 2020: An overview](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3147142721) · 5,723 citations
8. [2021 ESC/EACTS Guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3195842247) · 5,653 citations
9. [Natural products in drug discovery: advances and opportunities](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3119952098) · 5,405 citations · Free PDF
10. [Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3127371223) · 5,089 citations · Free PDF
11. [Plasma Hsp90 levels in patients with systemic sclerosis and relation to lung and skin involvement: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3118577024) · 5,038 citations · Free PDF
12. [Empagliflozin in Heart Failure with a Preserved Ejection Fraction](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3193297191) · 4,828 citations
13. [2. Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2022](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W4200148796) · 4,706 citations
14. [New Creatinine- and Cystatin C–Based Equations to Estimate GFR without Race](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3201595862) · 4,501 citations
15. [Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3193823764) · 3,868 citations · Free PDF
16. [Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3152705473) · 3,657 citations
17. [2021 Guideline for the Prevention of Stroke in Patients With Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: A Guideline From the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3164908038) · 3,182 citations
18. [Functional Hydrogels as Wound Dressing to Enhance Wound Healing](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3193219480) · 3,124 citations
19. [Defining Training and Performance Caliber: A Participant Classification Framework](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W4206651290) · 3,022 citations
20. [Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3184226105) · 2,926 citations
21. [CAR-T cell therapy: current limitations and potential strategies](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3148729173) · 2,895 citations · Free PDF
22. [Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2021](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3203103016) · 2,895 citations
23. [Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3184339862) · 2,891 citations · Free PDF
24. [Changing profiles of cancer burden worldwide and in China: a secondary analysis of the global cancer statistics 2020](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3134553072) · 2,884 citations
25. [Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3176208875) · 2,823 citations

Canonical page: https://nerdi.pages.dev/papers/medicine/most-cited-2021