Bibliometric analysis of global research on vitamins and cancer between 2003 and 2022

Vitamins are essential nutrients that play an indispensable role in maintaining the vital functions of the human body. A growing number of studies have shown a link between vitamins and cancer. However, there is no systematic review and bibliometric analysis in this field. This study aims to summarize the hotspots and emerging research topics in this field of vitamins and cancer research.

Articles on the topic of vitamins and cancer published between 2003 and 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection database (WOSCC) on May 1, 2023. Subsequently, we conducted VOSviewer and CiteSpace to examine the annual output distribution, countries/regions, institutions, journals, authors, co-cited references, and keywords.

A total of 3166 publications were extracted using a timespan of 2003 to 2022. The number of publications has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. Most publications were from the United States; Harvard University was the most active institutions; Giovannucci stood out among authors with the highest number of publications, citations and H-index; Cancer Epidem Biomar published the most papers in this field; the highest cited reference was published in Nat Rev Cancer, authored by Feldman in 2014. Breast cancer was the most common type of cancer, while vitamin D was a research hotspot in this field. Oxidative stress may be the primary anticancer mechanism of vitamins, while also involving epithelial-mesenchymal transition, apoptosis, polymorphism, and calcium metabolism. "nanoparticle" may be the new focus of attention in the next few years.

This study presented an overview of the major research directions of vitamins and cancer by bibliometric methods over the past 2 decades. The results could reveal the research trends and the hotspots in the field and provide helpful information for clinical treatments of cancer.