Bibliometric analysis of hotspots and frontiers in cancer-related fatigue among ovarian cancer survivors

OBJECTIVES: To explore and analyze research hotspots and frontiers in CRF in ovarian cancer patients to provide an evidence-based basis for scholars and policymakers. BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer is one of the most common and lethal gynecological malignancies. Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is an annoying and pervasive side-effect that seriously affects the activities of daily living and decreases the quality of life (QoL) of cancer survivors. METHODS: The literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) from inception to 2021-12-31. CiteSpace was used to discuss research countries, institutions, authors, and keywords. RESULTS: This study ultimately included 755 valid publications, and the number of publications showed a gradual upward trend. The countries, institutions, authors, and journals that have published the most articles and cited the most frequently were the United States, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Michael Friedlander and Amit M Oza, Gynecologic Oncology, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. The top three high-frequency keywords were Ovarian cancer, chemotherapy, and clinical trial. The top three keywords with the strongest citation bursts were cyclophosphamide, double-blind, and open-label. CONCLUSIONS: Conducting multi-center, large-sample, randomized controlled clinical trials to determine whether chemotherapeutic agents have severe adverse effects and to discuss the relationship between CRF and QoL and overall survival in cancer survivors are hotspots in this field. The new trends may be applying double-blind, randomized controlled trials to clarify the causes of CRF and open-label, randomized trials to determine the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of chemotherapeutic agents.