Objective To analyze the current research status of radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in the past 10 years so as to understand the research hotspots and future development in this field through a bibliometric visualization analysis. Methods The literature relevant DTC RAI therapy published from 2014 to 2023 was screened using the Web of Science database. The publication time, country, institution, author, keywords, and other content of literature were analyzed, and the multidimensional scientific research network was constructed, and the visualization analysis was performed using RStudio and Flourish software. Results A total of 2 018 studies related to DTC RAI therapy were screened out from the publications from 2014 to 2023, with a fluctuating trend of increasing publication numbers. The publication numbers in China ranked first (422 articles), followed by the United States (374 articles) and Italy (182 articles). In terms of international cooperation, the United States ranked first with the most leading collaborations (289 times), and the top 3 countries in terms of cooperation with the United States were Italy (33 times), China (21 times), and France (21 times). China ranked fifth in leading cooperation, relatively less (52 times), with the main collaborators being Japan (7 times), South Korea (6 times), and Australia (5 times). Half of the top 6 institutions in terms of publication numbers were from the United States, with the top 3 being Unicancer from France (135 articles), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from the United States (134 articles), and the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center from the United States (89 articles). Beijing Union Medical College Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked 19th and 23rd, respectively, with article counts of 46 and 44 articles. Tuttle RM, an author from the United States, ranked first in both publication numbers and contribution, with a total of 48 articles published from 2014 to 2023. There were two authors, Lin YS and Tan J, from China who had made it into the top 10 in terms of publication numbers, with 32 and 25 publications, respectively. The trend topics showed the evolution of hot topics, covering from the relation between urinary iodine and DTC, lymph node metastasis, to innovative research and prognosis assessment, as well as in-depth exploration of new therapies for iodine-refractory DTC. The co-occurrence and clustering of keywords included 4 aspects, namely, the standardized management of DTC, related contents during the peri-treatment period, papillary thyroid carcinoma, and the exploration of targeted therapy for iodine-refractory DTC. Conclusions In recent years, the research focus in the field of DTC RAI therapy has shifted from technical applications to management concepts, which has also promoted the improvement of treatment modes and made patients’ treatment plans increasingly personalized and precise. Future research will focus on precision medicine, individualized treatment, the combination of targeted therapy and immunotherapy, resistance mechanisms to treatment, and long-term management after treatment, aiming to improve patients’ treatment outcomes and quality of life and achieve a revolutionary breakthrough in treatment.

Citation： ZHANG Yunrui, ZHANG Xin, ZHANG Yingqiang, LIN Yansong. Radioactive iodine therapy for differentiated thyroid cancer: a visualized bibliometric analysis. CHINESE JOURNAL OF BASES AND CLINICS IN GENERAL SURGERY, 2024, 31(8): 952-960. doi: 10.7507/1007-9424.202404049 Copy

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