Bibliometric analysis maps clinical translation trends of liquid biopsy in lung cancer, highlighting targeted therapy monitoring and early multi-omics screening as primary clinical frontiers.
This study aims to systematically explore global research trends in liquid biopsy for lung cancer from 2012 to 2025 using bibliometric methods. It seeks to map international collaboration networks, trace knowledge evolution, and identify clinical translation pathways to inform future research directions. To collect relevant English-language literature, the Web of Science Core Collection was searched for publications dated January 2012 to May 2025. Bibliometric tools—R-bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace—were employed to assess national and institutional collaborations, journal impact, highly cited articles, keyword co-occurrence and emergence, and thematic evolution.We retrieved clinical trials published between 2012 and 2025 from the PubMed database to analyze the clinical progress in this field. A total of 2,258 relevant literatures were included. From 2012 to 2022, publication volume increased steadily, followed by a slight decline in 2023–2024. China contributed the most publications, while the United States led in international collaboration. Cancers had the highest output, and Clinical Cancer Research was the most cited. Hotspot analysis identified three major research directions: (1) ctDNA-based tracking of resistance and mutation evolution in targeted therapy; (2) MRD detection and recurrence risk assessment post-surgery; (3) integration of exosomes, cfRNA, DNA methylation, and multi-omics biomarkers with artificial intelligence to enable early lung cancer screening.Analysis of clinical trials from PubMed further validated that these bibliometric hotspots are actively being translated into clinical research, with a predominant focus on therapy monitoring & resistance detection, MRD assessment, and early cancer screening. Using a bibliometric approach, the present study captures a panoramic view of global research evolution in liquid biopsy for lung cancer. Future research is expected to emphasize multimodal biomarker integration, dynamic molecular tracking, and AI-driven decision support to advance precision oncology and early cancer interception. This study employs a multi-database bibliometric analysis to construct a macro-level knowledge map of global research on liquid biopsy in lung cancer, identify key research directions and collaborative networks, and—from a clinical translation perspective—evaluate the pathways and bottlenecks in transitioning from basic research to clinical application. This work not only provides a comprehensive overview for newcomers to the field but also offers data-driven decision-making support for clinicians, industry R&D, and research funding allocation, thereby promoting the scientifically-grounded and efficient integration of liquid biopsy technology into precision medicine for lung cancer.
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Li et al. (2026) studied this question.