A bibliometric study and visualization analysis of ferroptosis-inducing cancer therapy

Abstract

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that was first formally proposed a decade ago. While its role in cancer cell death was initially understudied, it has recently gained considerable interest from researchers. In recent years, a growing number of studies have focused on the role of ferroptosis in cancer progression, with the goal of developing novel ferroptosis-inducing cancer therapies. This study aims to present the developmental trend and hotspots of research on ferroptosis-inducing cancer therapy using bibliometric analysis. A literature search was conducted using the Web of Science Core Collection on October 1st, 2022, to retrieve articles and reviews pertaining to ferroptosis and cancer published from 2012 to 2022. Microsoft Excel 2016, VOSviewer 1.6.18 and CiteSpace (version 6.1. R6) were utilized to conduct the bibliometric analysis of publication trends, authorship, and citation networks, with a focus on identifying countries, institutions, journals, and authors contributing to the field. These analyses were used to predict future trends in this area. A total of 2839 articles were identified and extracted for analysis. The number of publications has increased almost every year, with a sharp increase after 2018. China produced the most publications in this area, followed by the United States. Central South University was the institution that published the most papers. Frontiers in Oncology was the journal with the highest number of publications, while Cell had the greatest impact factor. Daolin Tang was the most productive author and Dixon SJ was the most influential author. Co-occurrence and burst analyses of keywords and references were conducted to identify the developmental trends and hotspots in ferroptosis-inducing cancer therapy research. Main research directions have shifted from investigating the mechanism of ferroptosis to developing novel ferroptosis-targeting cancer therapies. Emerging topicsfocus on the role of ferroptosis in solid tumor therapy. Based on our bibliometric analysis, we predict that research on ferroptosis in cancer therapy will continue to be a hot topic in the future, with a growing number of treatment modalities related to ferroptosis being developed. Our study provides valuable insights into the current state and future trends of research in this field, serving as a useful guide for researchers seeking to make important contributions in this area.