Introduction: This bibliometric analysis evaluates the most influential studies in clinical research on melanoma.
Methods: Based on the bibliometric theory, articles in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database were analyzed. Full English-language articles were searched for using the terms melanoma, superficial spreading melanoma, nodular melanoma, lentigo maligna melanoma, and acral lentiginous melanoma. The 100 most-cited articles were analyzed by topic, author, journal of publication, year of publication, institution, and country of origin.
Results: The search returned 243,109 articles, with the majority from the past 3 decades: 1991-2000 (n = 29), 2001-2010 (n = 28), and 2011-2020 (n = 30). The top 100 cited articles had mean and median citations of 2,159 and 1,793, respectively. An article on the use of ipilimumab in metastatic melanoma, by Hodi et al., was most cited (8,150). The New England Journal of Medicine had the most citations (58,489), and Nature published the most articles (n = 21). The United States published the most articles (n = 81), led by the National Cancer Institute (n = 16). The majority of articles explored management (n = 68), prognosis (n = 57), and immunotherapy (n = 27).
Conclusions: This analysis serves as a guide for future research and highlights key areas of research, particularly in genetics and immunotherapy, that have influenced current knowledge of melanoma.