Artificial intelligence in liver cancer research: a scientometrics analysis of trends and topics.

Background and Aims: With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in various fields, understanding its impact on liver cancer research is paramount. This scientometrics project aims to investigate publication trends and topics in AI-related publications in liver cancer.
Materials and Methods: We employed a search strategy to identify AI-related publications in liver cancer using Scopus database. We analyzed the number of publications, author affiliations, and journals that publish AI-related publications in liver cancer. Finally, the publications were grouped based on intended application.
Results: We identified 3950 eligible publications (2695 articles, 366 reviews, and 889 other document types) from 1968 to August 3, 2023. There was a 12.7-fold increase in AI-related publications from 2013 to 2022. By comparison, the number of total publications on liver cancer increased by 1.7-fold. Our analysis revealed a significant shift in trends of AI-related publications on liver cancer in 2019. We also found a statistically significant consistent increase in numbers of AI-related publications over time (tau = 0.756, p < 0.0001). Eight (53%) of the top 15 journals with the most publications were radiology journals. The largest number of publications were from China (n=1156), the US (n=719), and Germany (n=236). The three most common publication categories were "medical image analysis for diagnosis" (37%), "diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers modeling & bioinformatics" (19%), and "genomic or molecular analysis" (18%).
Conclusion: Our study reveals increasing interest in AI for liver cancer research, evidenced by a 12.7-fold growth in related publications over the past decade. A common application of AI is in medical imaging analysis for various purposes. China, the US, and Germany are leading contributors.
Competing Interests: AS has served as a consultant or on advisory boards for Bayer, FujiFilm Medical Sciences, Exact Sciences, Universal Dx, Glycotest, Roche, Freenome, Delfi, GRAIL, Genentech, AstraZeneca, Eisai, Exelixis, Boston Scientific, HistoSonics. AS’s research is supported in part by U01 CA271887. CS reports research grants from ACR, Bayer, Foundation of NIH, GE, Gilead, Pfizer, Philips, Siemens, lab service agreements with OrsoBio, Enanta, Gilead, ICON, Intercept, Nusirt, Shire, Synageva, Takeda, institutional consulting for BMS, Exact Sciences, IBM-Watson, Pfizer, Personal consulting for Altimmune, Ascelia Pharma, Blade, Boehringer, Epigenomics, and Guerbet, receipt of royalties and/or honoraria from Medscape and Wolters Kluwer, ownership of stock options in Livivos, unpaid advisory board position in Quantix Bio. CS served as Chief Medical Officer for Livivos unsalaried position with stock options and stock through June 28, 2023 and currently serves as Principal Advisor to Livivos both appointments approved by his university. CS received funding from U01 DK130190, U01 DK061734, U01 FD007773, R43 DK135225, FNIH 20192423, R01 DK088925, R01 DK106419, and R01 DK110096. BT: Research support: Bayer, Guerbet, Takeda, Regeneron, Helio Genomics, Siemens, Echosens; Consultant: Bayer, Guerbet, Ascelia, WorldCare Clinical. JY provides a consulting service for AstraZeneca, Eisai, Exact Sciences, Exelixis, Fujifilm Medical Sciences, and Gilead Sciences. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
(Copyright © 2024 Rezaee-Zavareh, Kim, Yeo, Kim, Lee, Sirlin, Taouli, Saouaf, Wachsman, Noureddin, Wang, Moore, Li, Singal and Yang.)