Global research trends and hotspots on imaging of bladder cancer: A bibliometric and visual analysis from 1981 to 2023

There was currently no bibliometric analysis available regarding to bladder cancer (BCa) imaging. The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of relevant literature on the imaging of BCa and elucidate global research hotspots and further trends in this field. All relevant literature on the imaging of BCa published between 1981 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and Citespace were utilized for bibliometric analysis of publications, countries, authors, institutions, journals, references, and keywords. A total of 4462 articles were retrieved. The research in this field has been increasing consistently since 1981. The United States of America was the most productive country and most productive institutions were from it. Shariat SF was the most productive author with 36 articles and the author with the highest co-citations was Herr HW (472). Journal of Urology was the most productive journal and Frontiers in Oncology, Abdominal Radiology and Cancers exhibited heightened activity in recent years. A study by Siegel RL, published in CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians in 2019, had the highest number of co-citations. Further analysis of the keyword analysis and timeline view revealed that "radiomics," "deep learning," "multiparametric MRI," "VI-RADS," "muscle-invasive bladder cancer," "immunotherapy," and "long term outcome" were the most recent hotspots. In totally, in the period of 1981 to 2023 year, the USA occupies a critical position in the field of BCa imaging. It is anticipated that MRI-based imaging-reporting and data system and deep learning will be the research hotspots in the future.