Malignant temporal bone tumors (1941-2025): A bibliometric analysis of publication trends, key contributors, and thematic evolution.

OBJECTIVE

To characterize publication trends in, identify key contributors to, and map the thematic evolution of research on malignant temporal bone tumors from 1941 to 2025 using bibliometric and topic modeling methods.

METHODS

A comprehensive retrieval of English-language literature from the Web of Science Core Collection was conducted, yielding 1412 articles for analysis. Bibliometric software (VOSviewer and CiteSpace) and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling were employed to analyze annual publication outputs, citation counts, contributions by country/institution/author/journal, and keyword co-occurrence networks.

RESULTS

Publication volume demonstrated slow but steady growth, with most articles published after 2000. The United States contributed the largest share of publications, with its institutions and authors being the most prolific. Thematic evolution revealed a shift from an early focus on surgical resection and conventional radiotherapy to a recent emphasis on combined-modality approaches (e.g., surgery with adjuvant radiation, including proton therapy) and molecular investigations (e.g., biomarkers, genomics). However, research on low-stage tumor management and standardized staging systems remains limited. Keywords such as "postoperative radiotherapy" and "proton therapy" have emerged as high-frequency terms in recent years, indicating growing research interest in advanced therapies.

CONCLUSION

This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the research landscape for malignant temporal bone tumors, highlight the U.S. as a leader in output and a thematic shift toward multimodal and molecular research. It also highlights significant knowledge gaps, particularly in early-stage disease and staging optimization. These findings can help guide future research priorities and collaboration strategies to improve care for this rare malignancy.