Distribution and trends of hematology and oncology research in Latin America: A decade of uncertainty.

Background: Although hematology and oncology research is a highly relevant and evolving field, research contributions by Latin American countries, apart from Brazil, remain unclear.

Methods: The authors performed a bibliometric analysis through a methodical search of the Latin American abstracts presented at 4 main hematology and oncology annual scientific meetings from 2000 to 2010. Latin American regional and national productivity was described through distribution and trend analyses; the subsequent percentage of full-text publications was also determined.

Results: In total, 2871 abstracts were identified, of which 1972 abstracts (68.7%) were determined to be original Latin American research and were included in the analysis. Brazil produced by far the most abstracts, with 51.1% of the total, followed by Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay. Together, these 6 countries accounted for 95.2% of the abstracts. Latin America had a positive trend, registering an average increase of 21.5 abstracts per year (P < .001). Significant positive growth trends were observed for Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Argentina and Uruguay were the most productive countries when considering the rate of abstract presentation per population. The full-text publication rate was 17.9%, and the median time to publication after presentation was 1 year. Brazil prevailed as the leading publishing country (60%), followed by Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Cuba, all of which together published 96% of the full-text articles.

Conclusions: Hematology and oncology research is increasing in Latin America, but this contribution remains limited to a few countries. There is also a low rate of full-text articles derived from annual scientific meetings. More extensive research is recommended.