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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Key contributors and trends in circulating tumor DNA research in lung cancer: A bibliometric analysis

Lin Su1,2 ,  Xueli Bai1,2 ,  Xiaohong Zhang1,2 ,  Jiande Cheng1,2 ,  Jie Ding1,2 ,  Shuang Wei1,2 ,  Xiaochen Li2 ,  Xiansheng Liu1,2*
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1 Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
2 Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Key Laboratory of Pulmonary Diseases of Health Ministry, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
CP, 5223
Submitted: 19 October 2024 | Revised: 10 January 2025 | Accepted: 22 January 2025 | Published: 25 February 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality, and liquid biopsy, particularly the detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), offers a promising non-invasive alternative for diagnosis. Despite significant research on ctDNA in lung cancer, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis on this topic is lacking in the literature. This study systematically reviews ctDNA research trends in lung cancer using bibliometric methods to identify leading contributors, emerging themes, and underexplored areas for future research. We conducted a search of the Web of Science Core Collection database for ctDNA-related lung cancer publications up to 2023. The bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewers, CiteSpace, and the R package “bibliometrix.” The results revealed a total of 2862 publications on ctDNA in lung cancer, comprising 1998 articles and 864 reviews. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of publications stabilized, with an average of approximately 360 publications per year. The countries with the highest number of published papers were China and the United States. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was the leading institution in terms of publication output. Among journals, Cancers published the highest number of papers, while Clinical Cancer Research had the highest citation impact. Lanman RB was the leading author by publication count, and Newman was the most co-cited author. Current research on ctDNA in lung cancer primarily focuses on areas such as minimal residual disease, prognosis and recurrence monitoring, adjuvant therapy decision-making, epidermal growth factor receptor and targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. This bibliometric analysis highlights the impact of ctDNA in lung cancer, revealing key contributors and emerging research trends.

Keywords
Circulating tumor DNA
Lung cancer
Bibliometric analysis
Research trends
Key contributors
Funding
This research was funded by the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shanxi Universities (grant number 2022L160), the Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (grant number 202303021221192), the Key Scientific Research Project for COVID-19 Infection Emergency Treatment at Shanxi Bethune Hospital (grant number 2023xg01), the COVID-19 Research Project of the Shanxi Provincial Health Commission (grant numbers 2023XG001 and 2023XG005), the Four “Batches” Innovation Project for Invigorating Medical through Science and Technology in Shanxi Province (grant number 2023XM003), the Cancer Special Fund Research Project of Shanxi Bethune Hospital (grant number 2020-ZL04), and the External Expert Workshop Fund Program of the Shanxi Provincial Health Commission (Proteomics Shanxi Studio for Professor Huang He).
Conflict of interest
Shuang Wei is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved, directly or indirectly, in the editorial or peer-review process of this paper. Separately, the other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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