From texture analysis to artificial intelligence: global research landscape and evolutionary trajectory of radiomics in hepatocellular carcinoma.

[BACKGROUND] Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) poses a substantial global health burden with high morbidity and mortality rates. Radiomics, which extracts quantitative features from medical images to develop predictive models, has emerged as a promising non-invasive approach for HCC diagnosis and management. However, comprehensive analysis of research trends in this field remains limited.

[METHODS] We conducted a systematic bibliometric analysis of radiomics applications in HCC using literature from the Web of Science Core Collection (January 2006-April 2025). Publications were analyzed using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, R, and Python scripts to evaluate publication patterns, citation metrics, institutional contributions, keyword evolution, and collaboration networks.

[RESULTS] Among 906 included publications, we observed exponential growth, particularly accelerating after 2019. A global landscape analysis revealed China as the leader in publication volume, while the USA acted as the primary international collaboration hub. Countries like South Korea and the UK demonstrated higher average citation impact. Sun Yat-sen University was the most productive institution. Research themes evolved from fundamental texture analysis and CT/MRI applications toward predicting microvascular invasion, assessing treatment response (especially TACE), and prognostic modeling, driven recently by the deep integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning. Co-citation analysis revealed core knowledge clusters spanning radiomics methodology, clinical management, and landmark applications, demonstrating the field's interdisciplinary nature.

[CONCLUSION] Radiomics in HCC represents a rapidly expanding, AI-driven field characterized by extensive multidisciplinary collaboration. Future priorities should emphasize standardization, large-scale multicenter validation, enhanced international cooperation, and clinical translation to maximize radiomics' potential in precision HCC oncology.