Bibliometric and visual analysis of global crc circular RNA research 2015-2023

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third highest malignant tumor in the world in terms of incidence rate, accounting for about 10% of all cancer cases and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths. Timely diagnosis and effective treatment are key to significantly improving the survival rate of CRC patients. Various factors including gender, environmental factors, lifestyle choices, and genetic predisposition are all causes of the onset of CRC. Circular RNA(circRNA) mainly exists in cancer cells and tissues, solid tumors, peripheral blood, exosomes, and body fluids (such as serum, plasma, and saliva). Due to their resistance to degradation and presence in body fluids, CircRNA is non-invasive and an ideal candidate for liquid biopsy, thus having high diagnostic potential. Current research has found that circRNA can regulate the proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of CRC cells.

Methods: This article aims to comprehensively evaluate the current status and trends of circRNA research in the field of CRC through bibliometric analysis. Intended to use software tools such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Microsoft Excel, and R language package to illustrate research progress and focus, in order to outline development trends and future research directions.

Results: This study used specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to investigate 1048 papers published before December 31, 2023 in the core database of the World Council for Scientific Knowledge. Our research findings indicate that China has the highest number of published papers in this field, with Nanjing Medical University and Kiavash Hushmandi considered the most influential institutions and authors. The Journal ofOncology Frontiers is the journal with the most published papers, while the article "Circular RNA: The New Star of Non coding RNA" is the journal with the most published papers. In addition, terms such as "signaling pathway", "promoting metastasis", "promoting proliferation", and "drug resistance" have become important focuses in this research field.

Conclusions: This study indicates that the focus between circRNA and CRC has shifted from studying the biological characteristics of circRNA to studying the regulation of circRNA molecular mechanisms. Future research should emphasize the potential use of circRNA as a biomarker for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of CRC.

Keywords: CRC; Citespace; VOSviewer; bibliometric analysis; circular RNA; review; visualisation analysis.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the inclusion and exclusion process for the CircRNA and CRC Study.

Figure 2

Annual publication and citation counts for global circRNA-associated CRC research, 2015-01-01-2023-12-31.

Figure 3

Visualisation map of countries with international cooperation.

Figure 4

Linkages between different research organisations and for the study of CircRNA associated with CRC VOSviewer visual time network diagram.

Figure 5

Dendrogram of the top 15 journals with the highest number of research publications related to CircRNA and CRC, 2015-2023.

Figure 6

The top 20 references with the strongest citation bursts between 2015 and 2023 were involved in CircRNA in CRC, as determined by CiteSpace. red lines represent burst times.

Figure 7

CRC on CircRNA research VOSviewer visual network common references: Node size reflects the co citation strength and citation frequency of the literature, node color clustering represents a research field, and node position proximity represents literature topic relevance.

Figure 8

CRC on CircRNA research keywords for the VOSviewer visual network: keyword mapping. All keywords were divided into five groups and represented by different colors. The larger the circle, the higher the frequency.

Figure 9

CRC on CircRNA research keywords for the VOSviewer visual network: visual mapping of keyword times. Distribution based on mean time of occurrence. The color of the circle represents the year of occurrence. Yellow color indicates most recent occurrence and purple color indicates earlier occurrence.

Figure 10

CiteSpace-based visualisation of co-occurrence networks for keyword class clustering in studies related to CircRNA in CRC.

Figure 11

The top 30 keywords with the strongest CiteSpace-based citation bursts from 2015 to 2023. “Strength” indicates the strength of a keyword’s citation burst, with higher values indicating a higher frequency of occurrence during that time period. Light grey lines indicate less frequent time periods, lime green lines indicate more frequent time periods, and red markers indicate time periods when the keyword was at its most frequent.