Bibliometric analysis of worldwide research trends on breast cancer about inflammation

Abstract

Background: The most prevalent cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women is breast cancer. Growing interest has been shown in recent years in learning more about the processes behind the development of breast cancer. It has been shown that persistent inflammation may play a significant role in the advancement of breast cancer. However, a comprehensive and objective analysis on the state of inflammation in breast cancer research is still lacking. This study was aim to undertake a bibliometric analysis of breast cancer research associated with inflammation between 2013 and 2022 in order to identify the trends, dynamics, and scientific outputs in the field.

Methods: From 2013 to 2022, original and review publications on breast cancer and inflammation-associated research were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database. To examine the position of yearly publications, journals, nations, institutions, and authors, we employed two bibliometric tools (CiteSpace and VOSviewer). After that, by examining keyword visualization and keyword bursts, we determined the hot research fields related to inflammation in breast cancer.

Results: we discovered 6902 publications regarding inflammation in breast cancer by using our retrieval approach. In terms of the number of publications, The United States ranked first in the global study, followed by China and Italy. In terms of institutions, the University of Texas System, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and University of California System are in the top 3 for the quantity of publications published. The most popular journal for this field research is "CANCERS." Ueno NT, Woodward WA, Cristofanilli M, and others have made significant contributions to the understanding of inflammation in breast cancer. In the end, we conducted a biclustering analysis on keywords and discovered three clusters that represent research hotspots.

Conclusion: According to the global trend, the research output of inflammation in breast cancer is increasing. The information provided in this article, including the cooperation network information of authors, nations, journals, and institutions, may help researchers to better understand hotspots and developing patterns in this discipline. At present, the focus of study gradually shifts from "phenotype study" to "therapeutic research". It is recommended to pay attention to the latest hot spots, such as targeted therapy, antimicrobial activity and nanoparticle.

Keywords: Breast cancer; VOSviewer; bibliometrics; hotspots; inflammation.

Figure 1

Literature-sifting process flowchart.

Figure 2

Data on annual publication counts (A) and growth rates among the top 10 nations (B).

Figure 3

International collaboration in breast cancer inflammation research from 2013 to 2022.

Figure 4

(A) The cooperation between different organizations, with blue representing American organizations, red representing Chinese organizations. brown representing France institutions, purple representing the middle east, light yellow representing Britain institutions, yellow representing Italy institutions, grey representing Japan institutions, orange representing Korea institutions and light blue representing rest of Asia institutions. (B) CiteSpace visualization map of top 20 institutions with the strongest citation bursts involved in inflammation in breast cancer.

Figure 5

The most often cited top 20 sources. Citations that were particularly high that year are shown in red.

Figure 6

The relationship of research authors of inflammation in breast cancer (A).The 20 most rapidly-cited writers from 2013 to 2022 (B).

Figure 7

Analyzing the role of inflammation in breast cancer research using a co-word network and clustering of relevant keywords. Co-word frequency is represented by node size, co-word intensity by connection thickness, co-word network clustering results by color, and a tighter association between two words is shown by a node’s proximity to another node of the same color.

Figure 8

In this visualization of CiteSpace’s analysis of the top 30 keyword explosions, “strong” denotes the magnitude of the explosion, “begin” shows the year in which the explosion began, and “end” indicates the year in which the explosion ended; a red dotted line depicts the explosion’s length. The full time frame, from 2013 to 2022, is shown by the blue line.