Objective To explore the research hotspots and trends in the field of CSCs through the bibliometric analysis of the literature on CSCs.

Methods Based on the core database of Web of Science, CiteSpace was used to analyze the annual distribution of published articles, authors, institutions, countries, journals, citations and keywords, and to explore the frequency, centrality and clustering of key words.

Results (1) A total of 8131 articles were included after screening. China was the country with the largest number of articles, and Sun Yat-Sen University was the organization with the largest number of articles; (2) The hot spots in the field of CSCs are the research of CSCs in breast cancer and pancreatic cancer, the research of CSCs sorting and identification of molecular markers ALDH and genes PTEN, Sox2, C-myc, EZH2, the mechanism of EMT inducing the production of CSCs and promoting tumor metastasis, cellular and molecular mechanisms of CSCs resistance to chemical, radiation and targeted drug attacks, Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and tumor microenvironment regulate the differentiation of CSCs and targeted inhibition of CSCs in the treatment of malignant tumors; (3) The research trend of CSCs is CSCs stem research-biological mechanism of CSCs-CSCs application in the treatment of cancer.

Conclusion The focus and direction of CSCs research are EMT inducing CSCs to promote tumor metastasis, CSCs resisting chemical attack, mesenchymal stem cells regulating CSCs, the metabolism of CSCs, and inhibitors targeting CSCs at present and in the future.