OBJECTIVES: To analyse the current research status and hot trends of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in China based on data mining, with the aim of providing reference for researchers in this field.

METHODS: The Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) was searched until February 2024, when the database was built. Literature was screened using Endnote X9, a literature management software. VOSviewer 1.6.18 was used to visualise and analyse the screened documents.

RESULTS: A final total of 5,365 documents were included, with a significant annual growth trend of studies on this field. Guangdong (829 articles), Shanghai (722 articles), and Jiangsu (611 articles) were the top three provinces (cities) in terms of the number of articles; Journal of Integrative Liver Diseases (306 articles) was the journal with the largest number of articles; and The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (GZUTCM) was the institution with the largest number of articles. At present, Chinese medicine compound and various Chinese medicine therapies are used to treat patients with intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in order to improve the quality of survival, and also have a certain promotion effect on apoptosis of cancer cells, but the pattern of medication and its mechanism of action still need to be further explored and excavated.

CONCLUSIONS: Traditional Chinese medicine treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma can effectively reduce the symptoms and improve the quality of life of patients, and this study provides theoretical support for the clinical decision-making in this field, and provides certain references for the future research direction of the researchers.