Global status of research on gastrointestinal cancer patients' quality of life: A bibliometric and visual analysis from 2003 to 2023

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the current research status, hotspots, and frontiers in the field of Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer and quality of life (QoL) through the bibliometrics method, and to provide references and guidance for future research.

Methods: Literature related to GI cancer and QoL from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2023 was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace 6.2.R1 was performed for collaboration analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and document co-citation analysis.

Results: A total of 1224 publications were included in this study. There has been a significant increase in the number of publications in this field over the past two decades. The United States, the Karolinska Institute and the University of Amsterdam, and Pernilla Lagergren are the most prolific country, institution, and author, respectively. The links between most of the research constituents were relatively thin (centrality <0.1). The keyword analysis indicates that the benefits of physical activity on QoL, the levels of psychological distress and its relationship with QoL, as well as the development and validation of QoL measurement tools have been the research hotspots. Open-label/double-blind trials exploring therapeutic interventions and more targeted new drugs or more effective drug combinations, and longitudinal studies determining the direction of the association between psychological distress and QoL at different time points, may be emerging trends in this field.

Conclusion: The cooperation among countries, institutions, and authors in this field should be strengthened. In addition, the health benefits of light physical activity, interventions for QoL, trajectory and direction of the relationship between psychological distress and QoL may be the focus of future research.

Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Frontiers; Gastrointestinal cancer; Quality of life.

Fig. 1

Flowchart of data collection process.

Fig. 2

The annual number of publications on GI cancer and QoL from 2003 to 2023. Note: April of the first year to March of the following year represents a year in the horizontal axis, e.g., 2003–2004 represents April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004.

Fig. 3

Collaboration network among research constituents. A) Collaboration network of countries/regions; B) Collaboration network of institutions; C) Collaboration network of authors. Note: The size of nodes indicates the number of publications for research constituents. The links between nodes show the collaboration relationships, with thicker lines indicating closer connections. The colors of nodes and links represent publication and first association time. Nodes with purple rings indicate their centrality >0.1. The thickness of the purple ring around the node shows the strength of centrality (i.e., the thicker the purple ring, the greater its influence, and the closer its connection with other units).

Fig. 4

Cluster map of co-occurring of keywords on GI cancer and QoL. Note: Nodes (small white dots) represent the publications included in the analysis. The links between nodes display publications with the same keywords (including synonyms), and their colors are consistent with the colors of keyword clusters.

Fig. 5

Top 30 keywords with the strongest citation bursts from 2003 to 2023. Note: “Strength” represents the citation bursts intensity of the keyword, the higher the value, the higher the frequency of the keyword appearing during this period. The blue short line represents the citation time of the keyword, marking it in red indicates that the keyword is in the active period of strongest citation bursts.