A Bibliometric and Knowledge-Mapping Analysis of Bladder Cancer Organoid Research Based on Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed

Background: Bladder cancer organoid research has grown rapidly in recent years, extending from model establishment to drug screening, precision medicine, and tumor microenvironment modeling. However, publication output, knowledge sources, collaboration patterns, and topic evolution in this area have not been systematically examined. This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping of bladder cancer organoid research, with an independent Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) search conducted through PubMed to assess annual trends and thematic results.

Methods:

Results: The main Web of Science-Scopus dataset included 263 publications from 38 countries/regions, 365 institutions, 2,021 authors, and 168 journals or publication sources, with 8,593 total citations. Annual publication output increased quickly after 2019, and 2025 was the most productive complete publication year. China and the United States were the leading production centers, while the United States also showed a relatively high proportion of international collaboration. Highly cited publications and citation burst results identified patient-derived bladder cancer organoids, urothelial cancer-specific models, bladder assembloids, and tumor microenvironment modeling as major knowledge sources in the field. Keyword analysis showed that bladder cancer and organoid formed the dual core of the network, while drug screening, precision medicine, patient-derived organoid, drug resistance, immunotherapy, and antibody-drug conjugate became more active in recent years. The supplementary MEDLINE dataset contained 181 screened records, and its annual growth pattern and main themes were broadly consistent with the main analytical results.

Conclusions: Bladder cancer organoid research is moving from early model establishment and molecular characterization toward functional drug screening, precision medicine, tumor microenvironment modeling, and treatment response evaluation. Future studies should strengthen multicenter collaboration, model standardization, consistency of drug-sensitivity readouts, integration of immune and stromal components, and validation of associations between organoid-derived findings and clinical outcomes.