Research hotspots and frontiers of neoadjuvant therapy in triple-negative breast cancer: a bibliometric analysis of publications between 2002 and 2023

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive type of breast cancer with poor prognosis, and neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) has emerged as an important component in managing advanced-stage patients by providing surgical opportunities and improving survival outcomes. A search of publications on NAT for TNBC from 2002 to 2023 was conducted through the Web of Science core collection. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted on the data using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix. The analysis revealed a continuous and steady growth in the number of articles published in this field over the past 20 years. The United States has made significant contributions to this field, with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center publishing the most articles. Loibl, S. from Germany was found to be the most published author with 54 articles. Analysis of the journals showed that the Journal of Clinical Oncology is the most cited journal. Combined with the keyword co-occurrence analysis and clustering analysis, current research topic focuses on treatment regimens and disease prognosis. Dual-map overlay of the journals indicates that the research trend is gradually shifting from molecular biology and genetics to immunology and clinical research. Combination therapy, including immunotherapy, may be the future direction for NAT treatment of TNBC. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the current research status, latest advancements, and emerging development trend of NAT for TNBC.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the study.

Figure 2

Trends in the annual publication and citation of articles on neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer between 2002 and 2023.

Figure 3

Analysis of countries/regions in the field of neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. (A) Geographic visualization map of Country/region collaboration. (B) The top 10 most productive countries/regions.

Figure 4

Analysis of institutions in the field of neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. (A) Trend of the number of articles in the top 10 most productive institutions. (B) Network visualization map of the top 20 most productive institutions co-authorship analysis.

Figure 5

Contributions of authors to articles on neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. (A) The timeline map of the number of articles and citations for the top 10 most productive authors. Node size represents the publication volume of articles, and node color depth represents the citation count. (B) Network visualization map of the top 100 co-cited authors with the highest number of citations. Node size represents the citations, and the link represents the co-cited relationship.

Figure 6

Dual-map overlay of the journals on neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. The width of ellipse horizontal axis represents the number of authors of journal, and the length of ellipse vertical axis represents the number of papers published in the journal.

Figure 7

Visualization analysis of keywords. (A) The three-field plot in the filed triple-negative breast cancer (middle field: affiliations; left field: authors; right field: keywords plus). The gray curve represents the connection relationship, and the curve width represents the frequency of keyword occurrences. (B) The yearly occurrences of top 25 keywords. (C) The cumulative occurrences of top 25 keywords over time.