Emerging Trends and Thematic Evolution of Breast Cancer: Knowledge Mapping and Co-Word Analysis

Background: One of the requirements for scientists and researchers to enter any field of science is to have a comprehensive and accurate understanding of that discipline.

Objective: This study aims to draw a science map, provide structural analysis, explore the evolution, and determine new trends in research articles published in the field of breast cancer.

Methods: This study comprised a descriptive survey with a scientometric approach. Data were collected from MEDLINE using a search strategy based on Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms. This study used science mapping, which provides a visual representation and a longitudinal evolution of possible interrelations between scientific areas, documents, or authors, thus reflecting the cognitive architecture of science mapping. For this scientometric evaluation of the topic of breast cancer research, a very long period was considered for data collection. Moreover, due to the availability of numerous publications in the database, the assessment was divided into three different periods ranging from 1988 to 2020.

Results: A total of 12,577 records related to scientometric studies were extracted. The field of breast cancer research demonstrated three diagrams containing the most relevant themes for the three chronological periods evaluated. Each diagram was plotted based on the centrality and density linked to each research topic. The research output in the field was observed to revolve around 8 areas or themes: radiation injury, cardiovascular disease, fibroadenoma, antineoplastic agent, estrogen antagonistic, immunohistochemistry, soybean, and epitopes, each represented with different colors.

Conclusions: In the strategic diagrams, the themes were both well developed and important for the structuring of a research field. The first quadrant comprised motor themes of the specialty, which present strong centrality and high density (eg, corticosteroid antineoplastic age, stem cell, T-lymphocyte, protein tyrosine kinase, dietary, and phosphatidyl inositol-3-kinase). In the second quadrant of diagram, themes have well-developed internal ties but unimportant external ties, as they are of only marginal importance for the field. These themes are very specialized and peripheral (eg, DNA-binding). In the third quadrant, themes are both weakly developed and marginal. The themes in this quadrant have low density and centrality and mainly represent either emerging or declining themes (eg, ovarian neoplasm). Themes in the fourth quadrant of the strategic diagram are considered important for a research field but are not fully developed. This quadrant contains transversal and general, basic themes (eg, immunohistochemistry). Scientometric analysis of breast cancer research can be regarded as a roadmap for future research and policymaking for this important field.