Global trends and future directions in COVID-19 and leukemia research from 2020 to 2024

The COVID-19 has disproportionately affected leukemia patients, with outcomes significantly worse than those in the general population due to their immunocompromised status. Despite substantial growth in COVID-19 and leukemia research, there remains a lack of bibliometric analyses examining the global research landscape in this critical domain.

This study employed bibliometric methodology to analyze 346 publications examining the intersection of COVID-19 and leukemia from 2020 to 2024 using the Web of Science Core Collection database. Data visualization and analysis were conducted using VOSviewer (version 1.6.19), CiteSpace (version 6.2.R3), and the biblioshiny R package.

The analysis encompassed 66 countries, with publications from multiple institutions and researchers across 173 journals. The United States leads with 96 publications and 2,778 citations, with Tel Aviv University as the most influential institution. The Cureus Journal Of Medical Science has published the most papers (counts = 21), while the Blood has the most co-citations (1,177). Tamar Tadmor is the most prolific author (counts = 11, citations = 916), and Y. Herishanu has the highest co-citations (n = 104). Current research hotspots primarily encompass COVID-19 clinical outcomes, vaccine immunogenicity patterns, disease-specific management strategies, and therapeutic treatment adaptations. Future research directions should focus on long-term outcome monitoring, precision vaccination strategies, digital healthcare integration, global collaborative frameworks, and crisis preparedness mechanisms.

This bibliometric analysis indicates that COVID-19 has transformed leukemia research, moving from broad immunocompromised patient strategies to precision medicine integrating infection risk. The established knowledge base and international collaboration provide a solid foundation for future infectious disease challenges in vulnerable cancer populations.