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. 2025 May 2:16:1549600.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1549600. eCollection 2025.

Global research status and frontiers on ferroptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma: a comprehensive bibliometric and visualized analysis

Jiayu Zhu  1 , Shengping Luo  2 , Fei Yu  1 , Kewei Sun  3
Affiliations

Global research status and frontiers on ferroptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma: a comprehensive bibliometric and visualized analysis

Jiayu Zhu et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the research hotspots and future trends in the field of ferroptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma in the past 10 years by using bibliometrics and visualization software, and to provide reference for future research directions in this field.

Methods: The Web of Science database was searched from January 1, 2012, to October 30, 2024, and the annual publication volume, countries, institutions, journals, authors, references, keywords, and other information in this field were analyzed by bibliometrics, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace.

Results: A total of 645 English articles from 729 institutions in 32 countries were included in this study, with 4545 authors published in 261 journals. In the past three years, 518 articles were published, accounting for 80.3%. China has the most publications, followed by the United States. Frontiers in Oncology had the highest number of papers (n=26), while Cell had the highest number of citations (n=1206). The current research mainly focuses on two aspects: one is the study of the mechanism of ferroptosis to explore new therapeutic targets, and the other is the exploration of therapeutic methods, such as photodynamic therapy and nanomaterials, in order to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells, reduce drug resistance, and enhance the efficacy by regulating ferroptosis, which may become a future development trend.

Conclusion: In recent years, there have been increasing studies on the association between ferroptosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. This is the first comprehensive bibliometric study, which provides a reliable reference for future research in this field and promotes its further development.

Keywords: CiteSpace; VOSviewer; bibliometric analysis; ferroptosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; visualization analysis; visualized.

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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
The detailed process of literature screening.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual number and growth trends of publications.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Contributions of various countries to the research of ferroptosis in HCC. (A) Map of National Cooperation Contributions. The circles correspond to the number of publications from each country, and the lines represent their collaborations. (B) World map of countries’ cooperation. (C) The 10 countries with the most corresponding authors. (D) Top 10 Countries with the Strongest Citation bursts. The red line shows the time frame during bursts were discovered, while the blue line shows the time interval. From: VOSViewer, bibliometrix.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Visualization of institutions that performed research on ferroptosis in HCC. (A) Map of institutional Cooperation Contributions. The circles correspond to the number of publications from each institution, and the lines represent the collaborations between institutions. (B) Top 10 institutions with the most publication. (C) Top 10 institutions with the Strongest Citation bursts. From: VOSViewer.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Analysis of published journals and highly cited journals on ferroptosis in HCC. (A) Map of journal collaborative collaborations. Circles represent journals, and lines represent interactions between journals. (B) Annual Publication Trends of Journals. (C) Dual-Map Overlay of Journals. The two main citation pathways in the figure reveal the information flow between citing journals and cited journals. From: VOSViewer, bibliometrix.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Analysis of authors and co-cited authors in ferroptosis research in HCC. (A) Top 20 productive authors. (B) Annual publication trends of the top 10 authors in publication terms. (C) The visualization map of author cooperation network. (D) Collaboration of co-cited authors. Circles represent the number of publications by authors, and lines represent interactions between authors. From: VOSViewer, bibliometrix.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Analysis of Co-Cited References on ferroptosis research in HCC. (A) Network of 32 papers with co-citation frequency not less than 20. Circles are co-cited literatures. (B) The top 15 references with the strongest citation bursts. (C) Clustered network map of co-cited references. (D) The timeline view of co-cited references with their cluster labels on the right. From: VOSViewer, Citespace.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The keyword mapping of ferroptosis research in HCC. (A) A network map of keywords. Circles represent the frequency of keyword occurrences. (B) The top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. (C) The timeline view of author’s keywords. (D) Trend topics based on keywords plus over time. From: VOSViewer, bibliometrix, Citespace.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Schematic diagram of the mechanism of ferroptosis in HCC.
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