Background and Aims Thyroid cancer is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system globally, with its incidence increasing each year. It ranks fourth among malignant tumors in females, contributing to a growing healthcare burden. In recent years, advancements in medical technology and changes in thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment approaches have significantly improved the survival prognosis for patients. Based on the previous bibliometric research conducted by our team on thyroid cancer, this study was performed to analyze the dynamic evolution of the development as well as diagnostic and treatment patterns of thyroid cancer worldwide by utilizing clustering analysis and theme mining techniques, with different time horizons as the research object, in order to predict future research trends in thyroid cancer and provide valuable insights for the future direction of thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment.Methods The thyroid cancer-related studies from the Web of Science database were retrospectively collected. The VOSviewer 1.6.18 software was used to extract variables such as research topics, keywords, author information, and publication years from the included literature. Clustering analysis, temporal analysis, and topic mining were performed to explore the research themes of published studies on thyroid cancer using bibliometric methods. The dynamic evolution process of thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment patterns within different time periods was examined, and future research hotspots were predicted.Results A total of 32 074 publications on thyroid cancer-related research topics were included in the analysis, with the earliest publication dating back to 1955. Over time, the number of publications increased rapidly. Globally, based on the published literature, the development of thyroid cancer can be roughly divided into three stages through clustering analysis. These stages were as follows: 1. Exploratory treatment stage under empirical medicine guidance (1955-1990, Stage 1): A total of 2 713 eligible publications were published during this stage. Initially, the focus in the field of thyroid cancer was on its epidemiological characteristics, the relationship with antithyroglobulin indicators, follow-up prognosis, etc. However, during this stage, ideal clustering among various key terms was not yet established. 2. Standardized treatment stage under evidence-based medicine principles (1991-2000, Stage 2): A total of 2 845 eligible publications were published during this stage. The research focus shifted to the treatment and prognosis of thyroid cancer, including topics such as radioactive iodine therapy, ablation therapy, distant metastasis, etc. Since 1996, there has been increasing attention from the industry on the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, basic research, and prognosis of thyroid cancer. 3. Individualized treatment stage under the guidance of precision medicine (2001-2022, Stage 3): A total of 26 516 eligible publications were published during this stage. The research focus primarily revolved around the basic research of thyroid cancer, including BRAF mutations, mRNA, signaling pathways, etc. Molecular mechanism studies of thyroid cancer (such as non-coding RNA and the search for more ideal biomarkers to assist in diagnosis, monitoring, and prognosis) and the development of novel drugs for thyroid cancer treatment were the current key areas of interest for researchers in this stage.Conclusion The field of thyroid cancer research has seen a growing emphasis on related basic studies. It is predicted that future research hotspots will predominantly concentrate on the development of new targeted drugs for thyroid cancer and the exploration of more ideal biomarkers.