Bibliometric and visual analysis of palliative care in colorectal cancer research from 2015 to April 2025

Palliative care, as a treatment method for incurable diseases, can alleviate patients’ pain and improve their quality of life(QOL) to a certain extent. This treatment method is also common in the treatment of advanced malignant tumors. This study aims to examine the current research status and hotspots of palliative care in colorectal cancer(CRC) from January 1, 2015, to April 15, 2025, providing reference value for future research. Based on the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database, we retrieved articles related to palliative care in CRC published from January 1, 2015, to April 15, 2025, and analyzed them by using R software, VOS viewer and CiteSpace. This study included a total of 1146 relevant articles, which were published in 363 academic journals. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of studies focusing on palliative care in CRC has shown an upward trend. From 2016 to 2024, publication volume was relatively stable, with a slight peak observed in 2020. The top five countries in terms of publication volume were The United States, China, Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Australia. Among them, Australia was the leading country based on the multi-cooperation. The most frequently published journal was Supportive Care in Cancer, while The Journal of Clinical Oncology held a significant advantage in citation frequency. Our study demonstrates that research primarily focusing on “Precision and individualized systemic palliative treatment strategies”, “Palliative management of local complications and surgical interventions” and “Multidimensional supportive care” are getting increasing attention, indicating that the research tends to be diversified in the future. Palliative care not only improves quality of life but also represents a growing area of research interest in CRC. This study provides a systematic review and multi-dimensional analysis of the current research status and hotspots in palliative care cancer, aiming to offer valuable insights for future research.