Targeted therapy for Wilms tumor: a bibliometric study of worldwide scientific activity and collaborative networks

Wilms tumor (WT), or nephroblastoma, is the most common abdominal solid tumor in children with a recurrence rate as high as 15%. Targeted therapy is an effective treatment choice for patients with WT. This study aimed to evaluate the global research activity and collaborative networks of WT targeted therapy through the bibliometric analysis.

The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database was used to search related studies on targeted therapy for WT published between 1945 and 2024. Subsequently, the VOSviewer, Graphpad, and Bibliometrix package in the R Studio were applied to conduct bibliometric and visualized analysis.

A total of 1,604 publications were included in our analysis. The USA (n = 572) took the dominant position in the number of publications and Harvard University contributed most papers (n = 122). Sugiyama H and Oka Y demonstrated superior performance in this domain, with Sugiyama H leading in the number of publications (n = 59) and Oka Y leading in terms of co-citations (n = 382). The most productive journal was the Oncogene (n = 44). "Expression" and "Wilms Tumor" were the most frequent keywords, while "lncRNA", "Biomarkers" and "microRNA" were recent hotspots.

Research on targeted therapy for WT has developed rapidly with increasing interests, which emphasizes its growing importance in the scientific community. Nonetheless, the primary research has been primarily concentrated in a limited number of developed regions, and global collaboration remains inadequate. International collaborations and translational research should be reinforced to facilitate further advancements in this field.