The top 100 cited articles in lung cancer – a bibliometric analysis

Aim of the study
To analyze the 100 most cited lung cancer articles published in biomedical literature in the last 44 years. We pointed out developments in lung cancer and aimed to create convenient access for the researchers of this dynamic field.

Material and methods
We accessed the WoS database (accessed: 15.07.2019) using the keyword “lung cancer” between 1975 and 2019. The top 100 cited articles were analyzed by topic, journal, author, year, institution, level of evidence, adjusted citation index and also the correlations between citation, adjusted citation index, impact factor and length of time since publication.

Results
A total of 240,701 eligible articles were identified and we chose the top 100 articles cited in the field of lung cancer. The mean number of citations for these articles was 1879.82 ±1264.78. The most cited article was (times cited: 7751) a study by Lynch et al. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) made the greatest contribution to the top 100 list with 32 articles, and the most cited article also originated from NEJM. The highest number of citations was seen in 2017 with 18,393 citations while the highest number of publications was seen in 2005 with 12 publications.

Conclusions
Oncology is a developing field and we have seen the evolution in this area through the treatment of lung cancer in recent years. The first 100 articles in our analysis not only reflect the landmark articles with the greatest impact on lung cancer research, but also acknowledge the most productive authors and institutions that have contributed to the list with their articles.