Cancer-Related Psychological Distress over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends, Hotspots, and...

Cancer-related psychological distress is a major concern in comprehensive oncology care because it substantially impairs patients' quality of life and may adversely affect treatment adherence, outcomes, and prognosis. Over the past decade, research in this field has expanded rapidly; however, the overall knowledge structure, global research patterns, major contributors, and emerging hotspots remain insufficiently characterized. A bibliometric analysis is therefore needed to systematically map the development of cancer-related psychological distress research and identify evolving directions for future investigation.

Publications related to cancer-related psychological distress published between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases. The database searches were conducted on 10 March 2025. Bibliometric analyses were performed using VOSviewer (version 1.6.20), CiteSpace (version 6.3.R1), and the R package bibliometrix (version 5.3). Publication trends, country and institutional contributions, journal distribution, author collaboration networks, co-cited references, keyword co-occurrence, burst keywords, and thematic evolution were analyzed.

A total of 7063 publications were included in the bibliometric analysis, including 6162 articles and 901 reviews. Annual publication output increased from 465 publications in 2015 to 924 publications in 2024. The main contributing countries were the United States, Australia, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The United States ranked first in publication volume and total citations. Psycho-Oncology and Supportive Care in Cancer were the leading journals by publication volume and total citations. Major research themes included quality of life, psychological distress, depression, anxiety, breast cancer, distress screening, survivorship, and palliative care. Seven high-frequency keywords-"cancer," "quality of life," "psychological distress," "depression," "anxiety," "breast cancer," and "distress"-each appeared more than 500 times, representing the core research topics. Emerging keywords such as "informal caregivers," "young adults," "guidelines," and "adult survivors" reflected increasing attention to caregiver support, age-specific psychosocial needs, survivorship care, and standardized clinical management.

This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of global research on cancer-related psychological distress from 2015 to 2024. The findings reveal publication trends, major contributors, collaboration patterns, core research themes, knowledge structures, and emerging topics in this field. Current research has gradually shifted from general descriptions of psychological distress toward survivorship care, caregiver support, standardized screening, and guideline-based management. Future studies should strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, improve standardized assessment and screening approaches, and further explore emerging areas such as caregiver support, young adult cancer populations, survivorship care, and digital health and artificial intelligence-assisted approaches, which require further validation before routine clinical implementation.