Exploring miRNA Research in Colorectal Cancer: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most prevalent and challenging malignancies worldwide. The dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has emerged as a critical factor in CRC onset, progression, and therapeutic resistance. This study aims to provide an overview of global research trends on miRNAs in CRC, (i) identifying the most studied miRNAs, (ii) exploring under-investigated areas, and (iii) highlighting emerging themes and potential future directions. Methods: To assess the evolution of the global miRNA-CRC research trends, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 828 CRC-miRNA-focused articles published between 2008 and 2024, sourced from the Scopus database. Bibliometric mapping was performed using the R/Bibliometrix package and by leveraging a customized Python-based pipeline, which is useful for extracting and validating miRNA identifiers (miRNA IDs) based on the miRBase database. This miRNA ID-related approach enabled us to systematically identify the most frequently studied miRNAs over time while highlighting underexplored miRNA. Results: The analysis revealed a substantial and accelerating publication growth rate, delineating three major phases in CRC-miRNA research. China emerged as the leading contributor in terms of the publication volume. miR-21, miR-34a, and miR-195-5p were among the most frequently studied miRNAs, underscoring their relevance to CRC biology and therapy. Keyword and citation analyses identified key thematic areas, such as cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and chemoresistance, especially to oxaliplatin and 5-fluorouracil. Emerging research frontiers included ferroptosis, ceRNA networks, and exosome-mediated miRNA transport. An analysis of the collaborations indicated strong intra-national collaborations, with room for expanding international research networks. Conclusions: This study provides an in-depth bibliometric landscape of the CRC-related miRNA research by highlighting influential studies and journals while identifying gaps and underexplored topics. These insights offer valuable guidance for future translational and clinical research on this topic.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; biomarkers; colorectal cancer; microRNA; therapeutic targets; tumorigenesis.

Figure 1

Workflow diagram of this study. Schematic illustration of the methodological steps, including systematic screening of records, data collection, and analysis processes to ensure rigor in the bibliometric evaluation. In the search query, the asterisk (*) is used as a wildcard character in Scopus to retrieve all microRNA identifiers beginning with “mir-”. n: number of publications. N.b. Records were manually screened.

Figure 2

(A) Publications per year. The evolution in research publications regarding the connection between CRC and miRNAs can be traced through the rising count of such publications. The orange dashed line represents a 2-year moving average trendline, highlighting the underlying growth trajectory. (B) Cumulative number of publications across years. N.b. The number of publications in the year 2024 was incomplete due to the analysis timeline.

Figure 3

Annual miRNA heatmap. It illustrates the publication trends of the top 10 most frequently referenced miRNAs in the scientific literature related to CRC, arranged in descending order based on the total number of articles across all years. Each row corresponds to a specific miRNA, while the columns denote the years ranging from 2008 to 2024. The values within the heatmap represent the number of scientific articles published in a given year that address the respective miRNA. Additionally, the final two columns provide the total number of articles and the annual mean number of articles. The 2024 articles were considered up to the month of September.

Figure 4

(A) List of the most globally cited documents on miRNA research related to colorectal cancer (CRC), ranked by their global citation counts. Each document is labeled with the author(s) names, publication year, and journal [36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45]. (B) List of the most locally cited documents on miRNA research related to CRC, ranked by their local citation counts. Each document is labeled with the author(s) names, publication year, and journal [36,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54].

Figure 5

Country Scientific Production plot. The global distribution of publications (in percentage) concerning the relationship between miRNAs and CRC. Countries without contributions in this field are shown in white. The color scale reflects the number of authors’ appearances by affiliation in each country.

Figure 6

Corresponding authors’ countries. This chart illustrates the distribution of SCP articles attributed to a single nation via the corresponding author’s affiliation (blue bars) and MCP collaborative works involving international co-authors (red segments). The broken x-axis is used to graphically represent the large disparity in publication counts between China and other countries.

Figure 7

Collaboration network by country. Map of international collaboration networks in CRC and miRNAs, revealing three distinct clusters (color-coded) with shared patterns.

Figure 8

Sources of production journals over time. This chart illustrates the cumulative growth in article publications by the six most popular journals from 2008 to the end of 2024. Each line represents the journal’s contribution to the topic, based on the total publication volume.

Figure 9

Most Relevant Affiliations. The 10 most prolific organizations on miRNAs and CRC.

Figure 10

Word cloud plot. The 100 most frequent keywords related to miRNAs and CRC. The size of each word reflects its frequency and relevance within the dataset.

Figure 11

VOSviewer-generated network map of co-occurring author keywords related to miRNA and CRC. Node size indicates keyword frequency, colors represent thematic clusters, and link thickness reflects the strength of co-occurrence, illustrating the conceptual structure and thematic interrelations within the field.