The financial toxicity of breast cancer: a systematic mapping of the literature and identification of research challenges

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers, increasingly prevalent also among working-age populations. Regardless of age, breast cancer has significant direct and indi-rect costs on the individuals, families and society. The aim of this research is to provide a com-prehensive bibliometric analysis of the financial toxicity of breast cancer, to identify research voids and future research challenges.
Materials and methods: The systematic mapping of literature relies on a multi-method ap-proach, combining bibliometric methods with a standard review/discussion of most important contributions. The analysis employs Bibliometrics in R and VosViewer.
Results: The results highlight the key authors, journals and research topics in the investigation of the financial toxicity of cancer, highlighting the concentration of work around several authors and journals.
Conclusions: The results also reveal a lack of a comprehensive approach in the study of finan-cial toxicity, as the literature often focuses on one or few selected aspects of financial toxicity. In addition, geographic coverage is uneven and differences in the healthcare systems represent a challenge to straightforward comparisons.