Global research trends of TCM-based nonpharmacologic interventions in breast cancer supportive care: a bibliometric...

With improving survival in breast cancer, supportive care has increasingly focused on long-term, treatment-related symptom clusters (e.g., pain, fatigue, vasomotor symptoms, insomnia, and anxiety) that impair quality of life and adherence. Within integrative oncology, non-pharmacological Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapies-especially acupuncture and mind-body exercises (Tai Chi/Qigong)-have attracted growing attention, yet the field's global structure, collaboration patterns, and evolving research priorities have not been comprehensively mapped.

A bibliometric visualization study was conducted for English-language articles and reviews published from 2000 to 2025. Records were retrieved on January 8, 2026, from Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Scopus and deduplicated to form Dataset A for productivity, collaboration, and keyword analyses; Dataset B (WoSCC only) was used for co-citation analyses to ensure consistent cited-reference indexing. PubMed was used as an external source to validate annual publication trends. Analyses were performed using VOSviewer and R-bibliometrix (Biblioshiny).

A total of 1,761 documents from 590 sources were included, showing rapid growth with acceleration after the mid-2010s (10 papers in 2000 and 171 in 2025), and trends were consistent with PubMed (Spearman's ρ = 0.982, p = 9.59×10^-19 ). The field displayed a US-China bipolar pattern, with the United States leading in output, citations, and collaboration, and China showing fast recent growth but limited cross-regional institutional linkage. Integrative Cancer Therapies and Supportive Care in Cancer were the main outlets, and the knowledge base centered on RCTs and guidelines, particularly for acupuncture. Keywords revealed a shift from early treatment side-effect management to broader survivorship outcomes, and most recently toward evidence synthesis/implementation and targeted concerns such as sleep disturbance/insomnia, with emerging interest in mechanisms and subtype-related topics.

Research on non-pharmacological TCM therapies for breast cancer has grown rapidly, shifting from "CAM" toward integrative supportive care. Acupuncture and mind-body exercises remain central, and emerging priorities include standardization, implementation, and mechanism-/subtype-informed approaches. Stronger international collaboration and harmonized outcomes are needed to support scalable clinical integration.