Mapping Intellectual Structures and Research Hotspots of Triple Negative Breast Cancer: A Bibliometric Analysis

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly heterogeneous breast cancer subtype with a poor prognosis due to its extremely aggressive nature and lack of effective treatment options. This study aims to summarize the current hotspots of TNBC research and evaluate the TNBC research trends, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Scientific publications of TNBC-related studies from January 1, 2010 to October 17, 2020 were obtained from the Web of Science database. The BICOMB software was used to obtain the high-frequency keywords layout. The gCLUTO was used to produce a biclustering analysis on the binary matrix of word-paper. The co-occurrence and collaboration analysis between authors, countries, institutions, and keywords were performed by VOSviewer software. Keyword burst detection was performed by CiteSpace.

A total of 12,429 articles related to TNBC were identified. During 2010-2020, the most productive country/region and institution in TNBC field was the USA and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, respectively. Cancer Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Annals of Oncology were the first three periodicals with maximum publications in TNBC research. Eight research hotspots of TNBC were identified by co-word analysis. In the core hotspots, research on neoadjuvant chemotherapy, paclitaxel therapy, and molecular typing of TNBC is relatively mature. Research on immunotherapy and PARP inhibitor for TNBC is not yet mature but is the current focus of this field. Burst detection of keywords showed that studies on TNBC proteins and receptors, immunotherapy, target, and tumor cell migration showed bursts in recent three years.

The current study revealed that TNBC studies are growing. Attention should be paid to the latest hotspots, such as immunotherapy, PARP inhibitors, target, and TNBC proteins and receptors.