Evolutions of the Management of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastasis: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background: Tremendous progress has been made in the treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRCLM) in recent decades, and thousands of papers have been published. Therefore, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of articles related to CRCLM treatment to explore its evolution. Materials and Methods: The Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database was searched through June 2020 using terms related to CRCLM treatment. We analyzed the bibliographic information of the literature related to CRCLM treatment and explored the research topics to understand its evolution over time. Results: We identified 3436 records related to CRCLM treatment in the WOS database. The total number of times these documents were cited ranged 0-2352, and the years of publication spanned 1976-2020. The greatest numbers of articles were published in the United States, Japan, and France. Among institutions, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Oslo University Hospital published the most articles. Regarding authors, Jarnagin WR, Adam R, Vauthey JN published the most articles. The research topics of these articles included systemic chemotherapy, molecular targeted therapy, the outcome of liver resection, prognosis prediction, hepatic artery infusion, radiofrequency ablation, and two-stage hepatectomy. Conclusion: Bibliometric analysis of studies related to CRCLM treatment can help doctors and researchers quickly understand the development trend in this field. These data emphasize the current management of patients with CRCLM, and they can potentially guide the direction of future research.