Research trends and hotspots in prostate cancer associated exosome: a bibliometric analysis

Background Prostate cancer is viewed as the second most common cancer in men worldwide. In our study, we used bibliometric analysis to construct a visual map of the relationship between prostate cancer and exosomes with the intent of uncovering research trends and current hotspots in this field. Method We searched the Web of Science Core Collection for all publications in the prostate cancer associated with exosome field came out since 2010. With the assistance of bibliometric analysis software such as VOSviewer and CiteSpace, we conducted data extraction and analysis for countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals, references and keywords. Results A bibliometric analysis of 990 publications was performed. Since 2010, the published quantity and cited frequency of the prostate cancer-associated exosome field have revealed an increasing tendency. In this field, we visualized the research trends by the means of analyzing the references and keywords. We obtained the statistical data: the total citations of publications have increased to 55,462, the average citation per article has reached 55.3 times, and the H-index has amounted to 110. Our findings supported that USA, China and Italy rank the top countries with both the maximum publications and strongest cooperations. Harvard Medical School, Cedars Sinai Med Ctr, Johns Hopkins University, are top institutions in the center of research as they are held to be. Thery C, Skog J and Taylor DD are the leading and outstanding professors and researchers. And top journals like Prostate, Plos One and Journal of Extracellular Vesicle expressed keen interests in this field. Based on our analysis and research, we believe that this field is attracting more and more attention and will focus on tumor bone metastasis, drug delivery, and tumor suppressor. Conclusion In the past 12 years, researchers have dedicated their efforts to prostate cancer associated exosome. On the basis of previous studies, scientists are showing increasingly solicitude for the role of exosome in prostate cancer progression and potential therapy such as drug delivery.