Objective To explore the research current status, hotspots and tendency of cancer survivors in nursing field based on the CiteSpace software. Methods Literature related to cancer survivors in nursing field was retrieved from the core collection of Web of Science from 2000 to 2024. The CiteSpace 6.1.R6 software was adopted to perform visualized analysis on annual number of publications, research institutions, authors, and keywords. Results A total of 1376 literature was enrolled, all of them were English literature. From 2000 to 2024, the annual number of publications of literature related to cancer survivors in nursing field generally revealed an upward trend. The top 5 institutions with the highest number of publications were The University of North Carolina (37 articles), Indiana University (28 articles), The University of Sydney (28 articles), University of Toronto (24 articles), and The University of Melbourne (24 articles). There were 678 authors in the literature, 242 core authors, and a total of 586 articles were published. Chan RJ, Jefford M, Garcia⁃Vivar C, etc., were the core authors, and the overall cooperation between the research teams formed by the core authors was less. A total of 202 academic journals published literature related to cancer survivors in nursing field, of which Oncology Nursing Forum contributed the most to the dissemination of research results related to cancer survivors in nursing field. The literature of Sung H (2021) was the most frequently cited. The research hotspots of cancer survivors in nursing field were breast cancer, colorectal cancer and prostate cancer. The contents of research hotspots mainly included quality of life, cancer⁃related cognitive impairment, symptom management, social support and physical activity. The hot research methods were qualitative research. Chemotherapy⁃related cognitive impairment, symptom management, psychosocial intervention and symptom clusters were the research trends in the future. Conclusion The research heat related to cancer survivors in nursing field is generally high, but there is little cooperation between core authors. In the future, it is suggested that the disciplinary communication of cancer survivors in nursing field should be paid attention to, multidisciplinary collaboration mode should be carried out to deeply study the research related to cancer survivors in nursing field, precision nursing for cancer patients should be implemented, and the quality of life should be effectively improved.