Research trends of radiation induced temporal lobe injury in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma from 2000 to 2022: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: In patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), radiation-induced temporal lobe injury (TLI) is the most dreaded late-stage complication following radiation therapy (RT). We currently lack a definitive algorithmic administration for this entity. In the meantime, the pathogenesis of TLI and the mechanism-based interventions to prevent or treat this adverse effect remain unknown. To better answer the aforementioned questions, it is necessary to comprehend the intellectual foundations and prospective trends of this field through bibliometric analysis. Methods: Articles were gathered from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database between 2000 and 2022. CiteSpace was utilized to create a country/institutional co-authorship network, perform dual-map analysis, and find keywords with citation bursts. VOSviewer was used to build networks based on author co-authorship, journal citation, co-citation analysis of authors, references, and journals, and keyword co-occurrence. Results: A total of 140 articles and reviews were included in the final analysis. The number of publications has steadily increased with some fluctuations over the years. The country and institution contributing most to this field are the China and Sun Yat-Sen University. Han Fei was the most prolific author, while Lee Awm was the most frequently cited. The analysis of co-occurrence revealed three clusters, including: “radiation-induced injury or necrosis in NPC,” “clinical studies on chemotherapy/radiotherapy complications and survival in recurrent NPC,” and “IMRT/chemotherapy outcomes and toxicities in head and neck cancer”). Most recent keyword bursts were “volume,” “temporal lobe injury,” “toxicities,” “model,” “survival,” “intensity modulated radiotherapy,” “induced brain injury,” “head and neck cancer,” and “temporal lobe.” Conclusion: This study provides some insights of the major areas of interest in the field of radiation-induced TLI in patients with NPC by bibliometric analyses. This study assists scholars in locating collaborators and significant literature in this field, provides guidance for publishing journals, and identifies research hotspots. This analysis acknowledges significant contributions to the discipline and encourages the scientific community to conduct additional research.