Among the 471 articles included in the CirRFKB knowledgebase, we analyzed publication trends by year, revealing a significant increase in the number of related articles in recent years.

We also analyzed the proportional distribution of the four risk factor categories contained in the knowledgebase. The results show that genetic factors were the most prevalent, representing the primary type influencing the circadian clock-cancer relationship, while behavioral factors also accounted for a substantial proportion, highlighting the critical role of lifestyle in cancer risk. We further analyzed the proportions of risk factors, protective factors, non-influencing factors, and undefined factors. Risk factors accounted for approximately 18.2%, protective factors for about 13.9%, indicating that more established risk factors were identified than protective factors. This suggests that circadian disruption may have a predominantly negative impact on cancer. Concurrently, approximately 51.6% of risk factors remain undefined in their effect, warranting further research.

We determined the top 20 most frequently reported circadian risk factors associated with cancer, which may help highlight research targets and hotspots in cancer circadian risk factors. Within the current CirRFKB, research primarily focused on the core circadian clock genes PER2, PER1, BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY1, CRY2, and PER3, which collectively accounted for approximately 17.27% of the studied factors.

Of the 46 cancer types included in the knowledge base, breast cancer was the most extensively studied, followed by prostate cancer and lung cancer. A total of 504 risk factors (comprising 1,150 entries) related to breast cancer were identified.