Background: To analyze multi-source data including publications and patents, and try to draw the wholelandscape of the research and development community in the field of gene therapy for breast cancer. Materialsand Methods: Publications and patents were collected from the Web of science and databases of the five majorpatent offices of the world, respectively. Bibliometric methodologies and technology are used to investigatepublications/patents, their contents and relationships. Results: A total of 2,043 items published and 947 patentsfrom 1994 to 2013 including “gene therapy for breast cancer” were retrieved. The top five countries in globalpublication share were USA, China, Germany, Japan and England. On the other hand, USA, Australia, England,South Korea and Japan were the main producers of patents. The universities and enterprises of USA had thehighest amount of publication and patents. Adenovirus- and retrovirus-based gene therapies and small interferingRNA (siRNA) interference therapies were the main topics both in publications and patents. Conclusions: Theabove results show that global research in the field of gene therapy for breast cancer is increasing and the mainparticipants in this field are USA and Canada in North America, China, Japan and South Korea in Asia, andEngland, Germany, and Italy in Europe. Also, this article demonstrates the usefulness of bibliometrics to addresskey evaluation questions and define future areas of research.
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