Objective to understand the status quo of death education for cancer patients in China and abroad in recent 10 years and analyze its research hotspots, so as to provide reference for the future research on death education for cancer patients in China.Methods Articles related to death education of cancer patients were retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang database, PubMed, Web Of Science (WOS) and China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM). After removing duplication of Chinese and English databases, they were imported into CiteSpace6.1. R2 literature analysis software, and the number of articles and keywords were analyzed by clustering.Results 257 literatures were included in the study, and the research direction was obtained by combining the research of domestic and foreign scholars, and the death education model of cancer patients was improved, including carrying out original research, exploring the education model suitable for localization in China, and carrying out death education for patients with different cancer stages; Enrich the research types of death education for cancer patients, including carrying out relevant qualitative research or mixed research and training relevant professionals; Influencing factors of death education for cancer patients, including the study of patients" stress sources and the influence of pain on death education.Conclusion the research framework and model of death education in foreign countries are relatively mature, and it is still in the exploratory stage compared with that in China. After that, we should carry out abundant original research, build a research framework of death education, learn from foreign research, and build a localized death education model to promote the development of death education research of cancer patients in China.