Abstract
BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive metastatic subtype of BC that frequently develops chemoresistance. Immune checkpoint blockers (ICB) have led to breakthroughs in TNBC treatment. This study aimed to explore research trends and public interest in ICB interventions for TNBC. METHODS: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database for publications related to ICB for TNBC from 2003 to 2024. VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R package "bibliometrix" were used to analyze the characteristics of ICB publications in TNBC from a quantitative and qualitative perspective and to visualize the results to comprehensively present the research trends in this field. RESULTS: After removing duplicates, 2698 publications were included. The New England Journal of Medicine may be the leading and influential in the field of ICB in TNBC according to data on the total number of publications, number of citations, and impact factors. Its article entitled "Atezolizumab and Nab-Paclitaxel in Advanced TNBC" is 1 of the most cited articles. Keyword analysis showed that current research hotspots in this field are tumor microenvironment, complete pathological response, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and PARP inhibitors. Future research hotspots may include the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that ICB therapy for TNBC is a rapidly evolving and high-profile topic. Future research should focus on the optimal selection of different targets for ICB in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, ADC, and poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors to treat TNBC.