Global Research on the Treatment of Cancer Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Visualisation and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Aims

The COVID-19 threatened global health, especially for cancer patients. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the Science Citation Index literature published from 2019 to 2023 on the treatment of cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explored the research trends and public interest in this topic.

Materials and methods

A total of 4,941 articles in the Web of Science core collection on this topic were retrieved. The online analysis platforms of literature metrology were employed to do statistical analysis of the global annual volume of documents and citation frequency, perform cocitation analysis on authors, journals, and references, draw visual maps for countries or regions cooperation, institutional cooperation, author cooperation, and keyword cooccurrence, and then conduct keyword cluster analysis and keyword bursting.

Results

A total of 298 authors from 103 institutions and 74 countries or regions carried out research in the field, and the number of publications reached a peak in 2022. The United States, China, and Italy were the countries with the highest number of publications. The institutions that published the most papers are universities and research institutions. Keyword analysis showed that the research mainly focused on risk factors, outcomes, mortality, and therapy of cancer patients caused by COVID-19. Breast cancer was the cluster with the widest research scope. In addition to COVID-19, the burst keywords mainly included vaccination, delays, identification, immune response, malignancy, immunogenicity, and efficacy.

Conclusion

The research on the treatment of cancer patients during the COVID-19 has shifted from laboratory research to clinical research, and the focus has gradually shifted from exploring the mechanism to improving the therapeutic effect. Developing vaccines and exploring treatment options that are more suitable for use in cancer patients, and investigating the relevance of the cytokine storms seem to concur with research priorities postpandemic. In the future, strengthening cooperation among countries or regions, institutions, and authors will be crucial for future pandemics.