Abstract:Background and Aims Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most aggressive form of thyroid cancer, with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 0% and a disease-specific mortality rate nearing 100%. Despite the efforts of clinicians and researchers to advance ATC treatment, there is a lack of visualized analysis on trends, leading authors, and research focuses in this field. This study was conducted to explore research hotspots and trends in ATC treatment through visualized analysis of relevant studies.Methods Relevant literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database, spanning from January 1, 2000, to October 31, 2023. Visualization analysis was conducted using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Pajek software, focusing on indicators such as collaborations among countries/institutions, co-cited journals, co-authorship, co-cited authors, co-cited references and timelines, co-occurring keywords, and citation bursts. Additionally, impact factors (IF) and H-indices were obtained from WoSCC and Scopus databases.Results A total of 1 434 studies were included, involving 7 408 authors from 267 countries/regions and 1 545 institutions, published in 427 journals. These articles collectively cited 36 460 papers authored by 25 724 authors from 4 032 journals. The analysis revealed that the United States led in publication output (485 articles, 33.82%), followed by China (317 articles, 22.11%) and Italy (188 articles, 13.11%). The University of Texas System was the most prolific institution. The journal Thyroid was the leading contributor in terms of publications and citations. Maria E. Cabanillas was the most prolific author, contributing 30 publications and achieving an H-index of 51 in this field. Co-cited reference analysis identified the study “Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Treatment outcome and prognostic factors” by Kebebew Electron, published in Cancer, as the most cited reference, with 241 citations. The timeline of co-cited references highlighted that recent research in the past five years has primarily focused on targeted therapies, novel drug exploration, clinical trials, and guidelines. Keyword clustering analysis identified Akt signaling pathway, targeted therapy, and peptide mRNA nanoparticles as hotspots in ATC research over the past five years. Citation burst analysis showed a shift in research focus from surgery and chemotherapy in earlier years to targeted therapy (2018-2023), BRAF (2020-2023), association guidelines (2020-2023), and radioactive iodine (2020-2023). Additionally, an increasing number of studies have shown significant progress in the application of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy (CAR-T) and nanomaterials in the precision medicine and targeted treatment of thyroid cancer.Conclusion Research on ATC treatment is on the rise, with the United States maintaining a leading position in this field. Further exploration of molecular biomarkers and specific targets for ATC is essential. Molecular targeted therapies, immunotherapy, CAR-T, and nanomaterials are likely to be key areas of future research.