Role of ARNT2 in Cancer with Specific Emphasis on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Bibliometric Review

Introduction: Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) remains a significant public health issue worldwide, given its rising incidence and unfavourable survival rates, even with treatment advances. Owing to its bivalent function in cancer biology as an oncogene or tumour suppressor, depending on the cellular environment, Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator 2 (ARNT2), a bHLH-PAS transcription factor, has emerged as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target. Aim: This article reports an exhaustive bibliometric examination of worldwide research trends on ARNT2 with specific emphasis on its significance to OSCC. Materials and Methods: The present bibliometric study employed targeted keyword approaches, articles between 1996 and 2025 were retrieved from PubMed and Scopus. Network mapping, co-authorship, citation analysis, and keyword clustering were all performed in R software (v4.5.1). Original, peer-reviewed articles and reviews only were included. The evaluated parameters comprised publication year, journal source, country of origin and citation counts. Results: Analysis of 220 documents identified significant growth in ARNT2 over the last 20 years. The role of ARNT2 in hypoxic transcriptional control, its tumour-suppressive activity by regulation of cell growth and apoptosis, and its effect on reprogramming of the metabolism by the VHL-HIF1α-GLUT1 pathway were the three predominant thematic groups identified. The suppression of ARNT2 in OSCC and its potential as a marker for prognosis are emphasized in the highest cited publications. It has its greatest input from China, Japan, and the US, and global collaboration is expanding. Conclusion: ARNT2 plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of OSCC, as per the bibliometric picture, and its diagnostic and therapeutic possibility is increasing. For maximizing the potential of ARNT2 in targeted interventions in oral cancer, there is a need for increased translational research.