Systematic Review of Research Progress on Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

Abstract

Borderline resectable pancreatic cancer, an intermediate stage between a completely resectable state and an unresectable state, requires a multidisciplinary treatment approach. This study aimed to elucidate the main characteristics and recent research trends regarding borderline resectable pancreatic cancer to gain further insights into them. Data from published papers about borderline resectable pancreatic cancer were collected from Web of Science (2014-2023) for the analysis. This study included 355 papers; data on major countries, publishing organizations, and keywords were collected and analyzed. Furthermore, R studio and VOSviewer were used for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of keywords. Publication of papers on borderline resectable pancreatic cancer was observed to be increasing annually by 12.8%, with the United States and Japan being the main publishing countries. In 2014, keywords related to surgery and chemotherapy were dominant; however, a shift toward more integrative approaches, such as neoadjuvant therapy, was observed over time. This study demonstrates rapidly evolving trends and paradigm changes in the research and management of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. Thus, the results of this study are expected to contribute to establishing future research strategies and improving patient treatment outcomes.