Knowledge structure and emerging trends of AR variants in prostate cancer: a bibliometric analysis based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer

Prostate cancer is a common malignancy in urology which often develops into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) after hormone therapy. Studies have shown that the mechanism of its occurrence is related to androgen receptor splice variants (AR splice variants). This work employs a bibliometric approach to explore the knowledge structure and emerging trends of AR variants in prostate cancer. The literature from 2000 to 2021 was obtained from Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), and the results were analyzed and visualized via CiteSpace and VOSviewer regarding publication number, citation number, country, region, institution, journal, author, keyword and reference. A total of 1503 publications were obtained. The number of publications and citations in this field is increasing. United States is the most prominent country, and University of Washington is the most influential institution in terms of this research field. European Urology is the most authoritative journal regarding this field. Gleave, Martin is the most productive author, and collaborated closely with others having centrality >0.1. The keywords abiraterone and AR-V7 have the strongest citation bursts in recent years and continuing to the end of 2021 which indicate the trend and further research directions. The most cited papers and co-cited references were related to the clinical significance of AR-V7 and its mechanism of promoting CRPC. This study used visualization software CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze the current status and the research trends of AR variants in prostate cancer (PCa) over the past 20 years. The findings can identify research hotspots and reveal future research directions.