OBJECTIVES: With advances in biomarkers and the momentum of precision medicine, biomarker guided tests such as basket trials and umbrella trials have been developed under the framework of the master protocol. Despite the growing number of experiments with baskets and umbrellas, they were still poorly understood. This study conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the research on umbrella trials, and presented the current research hotspots and status quo through a visual way, aiming to improve people's understanding and understanding of umbrella trials.

METHODS: Publications related to umbrella trials were searched in the Web of Science Core Collections database between 1 January 2013 and 17 July 2023. VOSviewer and the R-bibliometrix package were used for this bibliometric analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 203 publications were included. Research related to umbrella trials has been growing in waves. A total of 1302 authors from 709 institutions in 43 countries participated in publications related to the umbrella trials. The USA was the largest contributor, and UTMD Anderson Cancer Center was the leading research institution. Rodriguez Anibal and Mills Edward J were the most prolific and influential authors, respectively. 203 publications were published in 119 journals, with the Journal of Clinical Oncology being the most popular. According to keyword analysis, the application of precision medicine, biomarkers and immunotherapy in cancer was the current research hotspot in this field. Oncology remained an important topic for future research in this field.

CONCLUSIONS: This was the first bibliometrics study to comprehensively summarize the research trend and development of umbrella tests. It revealed the overall situation of the literature performance related to umbrella tests, and identified the recent research frontiers and hot directions, which will provide references for scholars studying umbrella trials.