External beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer: What are the current research trends and hotspots?

Abstract

Background: The external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) applied for prostate cancer (PCa) has been one of the most important and hottest research fields over recent decades. This study aimed to explore the research hotspots of EBRT in PCa and help the researchers have a clear and intuitive reference basis for later researches.

Methods: The literature scientometric analysis related to "EBRT applied for PCa" was conducted via the Web of Science Core Collection from 2010 to 2019. The Microsoft Office Excel 2019 and CiteSpace V. 5.7.R1 software were introduced for visualizing and analyzing the data.

Results: A total of 7860 relevant papers were extracted and downloaded. A total of 7828 papers were extracted and analyzed after data cleansing by CiteSpace. The tendency of published papers was comprehensively increasing from 2010 to 2019. Among all 73 countries/regions, USA published the most papers, accounting for 39%, which was the most active contributor with most publications. Australia (Centrality: 0.18), England (Centrality: 0.12) were cooperating most cohesively with other countries. Univ Toronto was the most productive institute (229), while Harvard Univ (Centrality: 0.67) had extensive collaborations with other institutes. The International journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics had the largest number of publications and the highest number of co-citations. Briganti A had the largest volume of publications. D'Amico AV had the highest number of co-citations. Four latest and largest clusters were identified as oligometastases, salvage therapy (SRT), prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), and hypofractionation. Thirteen references became strongest burst citations lasting until 2019. The studies of "oligometastases," "SRT," "PSMA," "hypofractionation," "postoperative radiotherapy," and "dose and fraction regimen changes" were prevailing in the recent years.

Conclusion: The "oligometastases," "SRT," "PSMA," "hypofractionation," "postoperative radiotherapy," and "dose and fraction regimen changes" may be the state-of-art research frontiers, and related studies will advance in this field over time.

Keywords: EBRT; global trends; prostate cancer; scientometric analysis; visualization analysis.