A Bibliometric Review of Publications on Oxidative Stress and Chemobrain: 1990-2019

Abstract

Oxidative stress is considered one of the possible mechanisms behind chemobrain or the cognitive dysfunction persistent after chemotherapy treatment. Breast cancer patients have reported chemobrain symptoms since the 1990s. In this present bibliometric review, we employed the VOSviewer tool to describe the existing landscape on literature concerning oxidative stress, breast cancer chemotherapies, and chemobrain. As of 2019, 8799 papers were listed in the Web of Science database, with more than 900 papers published each year. As expected, terms relating to oxidative stress, mitochondria, breast cancer, and antioxidants have occurred very often in the literature throughout the years. In recent years, there has been an increase in the occurrence of terms related to nanomedicine. Only within the last decade do the keywords 'brain', 'blood-brain barrier', and 'central nervous system' appear, reflecting an increased interest in chemobrain. China has become the most prolific producer of oxidative stress and chemotherapy related papers in the last decade followed by the USA and India. In conclusion, the subject of oxidative stress as a mechanism behind chemotherapies' toxicities is an active area of research.

Keywords: antioxidants; chemobrain; chemotherapy; cognitive dysfunction; oxidative stress.

Figure 1

(a) Number of publications about oxidative stress and chemobrain per year. (b) Cumulative number of publications about oxidative stress and chemobrain per year.

Figure 2

Term map for years 1990–1999. Term map showing the visualization of 63 terms that occurred at least 10 times in documents between 1990 and 1999. Each circle represents a term. The size of the circle is proportional to the occurrences of the term (the bigger the circle, the higher the number of occurrences). Please refer to the color scale indicating averaged citation count. The proximity of circles indicates the frequency of co-occurrence between the two respective terms (the closer the proximity, the higher the frequency). Table S2 contains all the terms visualized with their respective occurrence frequencies and averaged citations.

Figure 3

Term map for years 2000–2009. Term map showing the visualization of 262 terms that occurred at least 15 times in publications between 2000 and 2009. Each circle represents a term. The size of the circle is proportional to the occurrences of the term (the bigger the circle, the higher the number of occurrences). Please refer to the color scale indicating averaged citation count. The proximity of circles indicates the frequency of co-occurrence between the two respective terms (the closer the proximity, the higher the frequency). Table S3 contains all the terms visualized with their respective occurrence frequencies and averaged citations.

Figure 4

Term map for years 2010–2019. Term map showing the visualization of 605 terms that occurred at least 15 in publications between 2010 and 2019. Each circle represents a term. The size of the circle is proportional to the occurrences of the term (the bigger the circle, the higher the number of occurrences). Please refer to the color scale indicating averaged citation count. The proximity of circles indicates the frequency of co-occurrence between the two respective terms (the closer the proximity, the higher the frequency). Table S4 contains all the terms visualized with their respective occurrence frequencies and averaged citations.

Figure 5

World map depicting the averaged citations per oxidative stress and chemotherapy-related papers published 1990–2019. Papers may have authors from more than one country denoting international collaboration. Please refer to the color scale for averaged citations. Publications from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland were combined into ‘United Kingdom’ for visualization purposes. Countries with at least 20 publications are depicted. See Table S5 for full details.