| Objective To carry out bibliometric and visual analysis of non-invasive cancer diagnosis using volatile organic compounds (VOCs) over the past 20 years, to characterize international status, shortfalls, and trends in this field, and to provide referencesin the future clinical application.Methods Taking "neoplasia" and "volatile organic compound" as common themes, the combinationof subject words and free words was adopted. Research on VOCs noninvasive diagnosis of tumors, from January 1, 2002 to October 26,2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to generate network mapsand identify the annual publications, top countries, authors, institutions, journals, references, and keywords.Results After screening,641 articles were included. Overall, there has been an increase in annual publications in this area, with an overall upward trend. Theanalysis of lung cancer and exhaled breath occupied a prominent position of research in this area. The application and development ofsensor detection technology in more cancers, and the exploration of potential specific biomarkers had become a new research trend.Conclusions The study of non-invasive cancer diagnosis using VOCs will continue to be a hot field. However, practical requirementsmust also be considered while pursuing innovative approaches. Without uniform operational standards, and without a reliable and reproducible list of VOCs to identify specific cancer types, the clinical utility of VOCs testing will be extremely limited. |
