One Health for Cancer Prevention: Integrating Human, Animal and Environmental Evidence into a Global Transdisciplinary Policy Framework
Elemuwa Christopher Ononiwu *
Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Cancer prevention is usually organised within human health systems, although important carcinogenic processes arise from shared biological, environmental, food-system and occupational exposures that cross species and administrative boundaries. This critical narrative review evaluates the case for a One Health approach to cancer prevention and develops a transdisciplinary policy framework that connects human oncology, veterinary medicine, environmental health, food and agricultural systems, ecosystem science and public policy. Literature published from 1 January 2000 to 30 June 2026 was identified through multidisciplinary scholarly sources and authoritative institutional documents, with targeted inclusion of earlier or foundational evidence only when conceptually necessary. The synthesis distinguishes established prevention opportunities from plausible but unvalidated cross-species signals. The strongest evidence for immediate integration concerns infection-associated cancers with reservoir or environmental components, food-chain carcinogens such as aflatoxins, ambient and occupational carcinogenic exposures, contaminated water, and shared household or agricultural chemical exposures. Companion animals and wildlife can provide temporally earlier or spatially localised signals of hazardous exposures, but veterinary sentinel evidence remains constrained by breed susceptibility, referral bias, inconsistent tumour registration, exposure misclassification and limited linkage with human cancer registries. Comparative oncology adds mechanistic and genomic value, yet its prevention contribution should not be conflated with therapeutic translation. Existing One Health implementation remains disproportionately focused on human-animal infectious disease interfaces, while environmental participation, cancer-specific governance, interoperable surveillance and prevention metrics are underdeveloped. We therefore propose a One Health Cancer Prevention Framework built around shared governance, integrated surveillance, source-directed exposure control, infection and food-system prevention, interoperable data and causal inference, and equity-centred implementation. The framework is intended as a testable policy architecture rather than a validated model. Its central proposition is that cancer control can become more preventive when upstream hazards are detected and reduced across human, animal and environmental systems before disease burdens accumulate in any one population.
Keywords: Cancer prevention, one health, comparative oncology, environmental carcinogens, animal sentinels, exposome, Infection-associated cancer, global health policy