Trends and visualization analysis of research on MASLD-Related hepatocellular carcinoma: a bibliometric analysis

Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) is one of the leading causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Over the years, significant progress has been made in diagnosing and treating MASLD. However, there is a lack of bibliometric analysis exploring the relationship between MASLD and HCC. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the knowledge structure and research status of MASLD-related HCC using bibliometric methods.

The study was conducted using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database, retrieving literature related to MASLD and HCC from 2020 to 2024. VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the R package "bibliometrics" were used for data analysis.

The study included 2,576 articles from 97 countries. The results showed that the number of publications related to MASLD and HCC increased steadily until 2023, after which there was a slight decline. China (The People's Republic of China) is the country with the highest volume of research output, while the United States is the country with the highest number of citations. The University of California System, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank were the leading contributing institutions. The International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Cancers, and Liver International were the most influential journals in this field, with the International Journal of Molecular Sciences being the most co-cited journal, and the Journal of Hepatology had the highest local impact in the field, as evaluated by the H-index. The publications were authored by 13,851 researchers, with Vincent Wai-Sun Wong, Masato Yoneda, and Rohit Loomba being the most influential authors in the field of MASLD and HCC. Rohit Loomba and Hashem B. El-Serag were the most cited authors. Trend analysis indicated that "tissue", "element-binding protein", and "contributes" were the most frequently studied topics in 2024, suggesting emerging research trends.

This study provides a comprehensive summary of the research trends and developments in HCC related to MASLD over the past five years. The findings reveal the latest research frontiers and hotspots in this field, offering valuable insights for future research. However, it should be noted that although the WoSCC is a widely recognized and authoritative database, it may have limitations related to regional bias, language coverage, and metadata accuracy, which could potentially affect the comprehensiveness of our analysis.