Temporal and Geographic Patterns of Immunotherapy-Related Information-Seeking Behavior in Germany and the United States: Insights from a Google Trends Analysis

Cancer immunotherapy has become a major pillar of standard oncology care, with approved indications across multiple cancer entities. In parallel, the internet has become a key source of health information. Using Google Trends, we analyzed relative search volume (RSV) for the lay terms: “immunotherapy”, “chemotherapy”, and “cancer”, as well as eight cancer entities with approved immunotherapy indications (melanoma, bronchial carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, colorectal carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma) in Germany and the United States. We observed a marked increase in RSV for “immunotherapy” and a rising immunotherapy-to-chemotherapy search ratio between 2011 and 2025, indicating a relative increase in immunotherapy-related search activity compared with chemotherapy. Regional analyses revealed heterogeneous patterns of immunotherapy-related interest, particularly in the United States, where elevated information-seeking behavior clustered in Northeastern states. Across cancer entities, melanoma demonstrated associations with immunotherapy RSV in both Germany and the United States. Longitudinal analyses showed seasonal peaks for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. Overall, our findings indicate that online search interest in immunotherapy is increasing, with geographic differences and cancer entity-specific patterns. This suggests that immunotherapy awareness is growing unevenly across regions and cancer types, underscoring the need for targeted health communication.