SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1604362
Evolution and Hotspots in Breast Cancer Organoid Research: Insights from a Bibliometric and Visual Knowledge Mapping Study (2005-2024)
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining, China
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Background:Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women globally. Organoid technology has emerged as a pivotal tool in breast cancer research due to its advantages in modeling tumor heterogeneity and the microenvironment. Despite rapid advancements in this field, a systematic bibliometric analysis to delineate research trends and challenges is lacking. This study aimed to analyze the research landscape, hotspots, and future directions in the field of breast cancer organoids from 2005 to 2024. Methods:Publications related to breast cancer organoids published between January 2005 and March 2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric tools (CiteSpace and VOSviewer) were employed to analyze collaboration networks (countries/institutions), author contributions, keyword co-occurrence clusters, and burst keywords. Results:Over the past two decades, the annual publication output on breast cancer organoids has shown continuous growth. The 1618 included English publications garnered a total of 7,323 citations, with a mean citation count of 35.20 per article. The United States (n=666) and China (n=257) contributed over 50% of the publications. Harvard University was the most productive institution.Mina J. Bissell authored the highest number of publications (n=17). High-frequency keywords centered on personalized therapy, immunotherapy, and 3D bioprinting. Burst keyword analysis identified "gene expression" and "signaling pathways" as emerging trends (2019)(2020)(2021)(2022)(2023)(2024). Key research hotspots include the application of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) for drug screening, co-culture modeling of the tumor microenvironment (TME) with immune components, and the integration of 3D bioprinting technologies.This study represents the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis to elucidate the evolution and research hotspots in breast cancer organoid research in recent years. The findings provide a thorough summary of the major achievements, persistent challenges, and future frontiers within this rapidly advancing field.
Keywords: Breast cancer1, Organoids2, bibliometrics3, drug discovery4, research hotspots5, 3D Bioprinting6, tumor microenvironment7
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Li, Lei, Liu and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhen Liu, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining, China
Xing Fu Zhao, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.