Tracking knowledge evolution, hotspots and future directions of emerging technologies in cancers research: a bibliometrics review

Due to various environmental pollution issues, cancers have become the “first killer” of human beings in the 21st century and their control has become a global strategy of human health. The increasing development of emerging information technologies has provided opportunities for prevention, early detection, diagnosis, intervention, prognosis, nursing, and rehabilitation of cancers. In recent years, the literature associated with emerging technologies in cancer has grown rapidly, but few studies have used bibliometrics and a visualization approach to conduct deep mining and reveal a panorama of this field. To explore the dynamic knowledge evolution of emerging information technologies in cancer literature, we comprehensively analyzed the development status and research hotspots in this field from bibliometrics perspective. We collected 7,136 articles (2000-2017) from the Web of Science database and visually displayed the dynamic knowledge evolution process via the analysis on time-sequence changes, spatial distribution, knowledge base, and hotspots. Much institutional cooperation occurs in this field, and research groups are relatively concentrated. BMC Bioinformatics, PLOS One, Journal of Urology, Scientific Reports, and Bioinformatics are the top five journals in this field. Research hotspots are mainly concentrated in two dimensions: the disease dimension (e.g., cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer), and the technical dimension (e.g., robotics, machine learning, data mining, and etc.). The emerging technologies in cancer research is fast ascending and promising. This study also provides researchers with panoramic knowledge of this field, as well as research hotspots and future directions.