Cardiotoxicity Induced by Doxorubicin: Exploring Research Frontiers, Co-word Analysis, Trends, and Thematic Development

Background Doxorubicin (DX)-induced cardiotoxicity involves dose- and time-dependent myocardial injury driven by oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and disrupted topoisomerase IIβ signaling, leading to progressive left ventricular dysfunction and heart failure risk. Despite the growing literature in this field, no comprehensive bibliometric investigation has yet mapped the intellectual structure, research frontiers, and thematic evolution of this domain, creating a gap in synthesizing the knowledge landscape of DX-induced cardiotoxicity research (DCTR). Purpose The objective of this study was to fill this gap by exploring research frontiers, co-word analysis, theme integration, and thematic developments related to DCTR using a bibliometric network examination from 1974 to 2024. Materials and Methods The analyzes were executed in four sequential stages: (a) collection of data-driven studies from the Scopus database, (b) preprocessing and refining of the dataset, (c) construction and visualization of networks, and (d) analysis and elucidation of the dataset using Visualization of Similarities Viewer (bibliometric network mapping software) (VOSviewer) and Bibliometrix applications. An investigation was conducted using descriptive analysis, bibliometric network analysis, and full quantitative analysis. Results The 6,135 keywords extracted from 4,782 abstracts were used to determine the intellectual and thematic framework of the studies on DCTR. Prominent frontiers were identified, along with their corresponding effect measures. Three themes were identified to characterize the evolution of keywords in the structure over a period of 50 years: “Chemotherapy Theme,” “Breast Cancer Theme,” and “DX Theme.” Current emerging topics in this field include pyroptosis, ferroptosis, molecular docking, network pharmacology, and the NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. Conclusion The findings of this study offer significant perspectives for studies pertaining to the DCTR. These data may assist physicians in summarizing future research in this field.