Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 8:10:1128432.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1128432. eCollection 2023.

A bibliometric analysis of Mediterranean diet on cancer from 2012 to 2021

Yafeng Liu  1 , Jibin Lu  1
Affiliations

A bibliometric analysis of Mediterranean diet on cancer from 2012 to 2021

Yafeng Liu et al. Front Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated the value of the Mediterranean diet (MD) as a nutritious eating regimen for lowering the risk of cancer. This study aims to discuss the research patterns, existing state, and possible hotspots in implementing the MD for the prevention and treatment of cancer using bibliometrics.

Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was searched for articles on cancer that were related to the MD. CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Microsoft Excel 2019, and R software were utilized for bibliometric analysis and data visualization.

Results: There were 1,415 articles and reviews published from 2012 to 2021. Annual publication volume showed a continuous upward trend. Italy and Harvard University were the country and institution, respectively, with the highest number of publications on this topic. Nutrients ranked first in the number of documents, number of citations, and the H-index. James R. Hebert was the most productive writer, and Antonia Trichopoulou was the most co-cited author. "Alcohol consumption," "oleic acid," and "low density lipoprotein" were keywords used in earlier publications, while more recent hotspots focused on "gut microbiota," "older adult," and "polyphenol."

Conclusion: Over the past decade, research on the MD in the field of cancer has received increasing attention. To improve the level of evidence for the beneficial effects of the MD on a range of cancers, more research on molecular mechanisms and better clinical studies are required.

Keywords: CiteSpace; Mediterranean diet; VOSviewer; bibliometric analysis; cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Search strategy and data filtering process.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The annual volume and trend of publications on the Mediterranean diet (MD) on cancer.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
(A) Geographical distribution of the countries/regions in terms of publications. (B) The trends of publications by top five countries from 2012 to 2021. (C) The chord diagram of cooperation among countries/regions.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The co-authorship network diagram of panel (A) the countries/regions and (B) institutions. The size of the nodes represents the number of publications, the lines represent cooperation, and the color of the nodes represents the time.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
A dual-map overlap of journals of Mediterranean diet (MD) on cancer. The left is the cited journal and the right is the cited journal, the longer transverse diameter of the ellipse represents more publications in the corresponding journal.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
The collaboration map of panel (A) authors and (B) co-cited authors.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
(A) The co-occurrence map of references. (B) The timeline plot of references. The texts on the right are the topics.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
(A) Cluster and collaboration map of keywords. (B) Bursts detection map of keywords.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ahmad F, Anderson R. The leading causes of death in the Us for 2020. JAMA. (2021) 325:1829–30. 10.1001/jama.2021.5469 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel R, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: globocan estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. (2021) 71:209–49. 10.3322/caac.21660 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kocarnik J, Compton K, Dean F, Fu W, Gaw B, Harvey J, et al. Cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life years for 29 cancer groups from 2010 to 2019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019. JAMA Oncol. (2022) 8:420–44. 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.6987 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kanarek N, Petrova B, Sabatini D. Dietary modifications for enhanced cancer therapy. Nature. (2020) 579:507–17. 10.1038/s41586-020-2124-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tajan M, Vousden K. Dietary approaches to cancer therapy. Cancer Cell. (2020) 37:767–85. 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.04.005 - DOI - PubMed