Global trends in nanomedicine research on triple negative breast cancer: a bibliometric analysis

Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising tool in the clinic to combat several difficult-to-manage diseases, such as cancer, which is the second leading cause of death world-wide. Chemotherapeutic drugs present several limitations such as undesired side effects, low specificity, resistance, and high relapse rates. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is caused by cells that lack specific receptors in their membrane, such as estrogen (ER+) and progesterone (PR+) receptors, or by cells that do not express the amplification of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2+). This cancer type has poor prognosis, high relapse rates, and no targeted therapies. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the trends of nanotechnology research in TNBC and compare the contribution of research from different regions, institutions, and authors. A search of the studies published between 2012 and 2017, related to nanotechnology and TNBC, with different keyword combinations, was performed in the Scopus database. The keywords found in this search were grouped into four clusters, in which breast cancer was the most mentioned (1,133 times) and the word MCF-7 cell line is one of the latest hotspots that appeared in the year 2016. A total of 1,932 articles, which were cited 26,450 times, were identified. The USA accounted for 28.36% of the articles and 27.61% of the citations; however, none of its centers appeared in the list of 10 most productive ones in terms of publications. The journals Biomaterials and International Journal of Nanomedicine had the highest number of publications. The USA and China had the highest number of articles produced and cited; however, the highest average citation per article was from Singapore. The studies focused on the research of antineoplastic agents in animal models and cell culture, and these were the most used topics in research with nanotechnology and TNBC.