One Health and cancer: A comparative study of human and canine cancers in Nairobi

Abstract

Aim: Recent trends in comparative animal and human research inform us that collaborative research plays a key role in deciphering and solving cancer challenges. Globally, cancer is a devastating diagnosis with an increasing burden in both humans and dogs and ranks as the number three killer among humans in Kenya. This study aimed to provide comparative information on cancers affecting humans and dogs in Nairobi, Kenya. Materials and Methods: Dog data collection was by cancer case finding from five veterinary clinics and two diagnostic laboratories, whereas the human dataset was from the Nairobi Cancer Registry covering the period 2002-2012. The analysis was achieved using IBM SPSS Statistics ® v.20 (Dog data) and CanReg5 (human data). The human population was estimated from the Kenya National Census, whereas the dog population was estimated from the human using a human:dog ratio of 4.1:1. Results: A total of 15,558 human and 367 dog cancer cases were identified. In humans, females had higher cancer cases 8993 (an age-standardized rate of 179.3 per 100,000) compared to 6565 in males (122.1 per 100,000). This order was reversed in dogs where males had higher cases 198 (14.9 per 100,000) compared to 169 (17.5 per 100,000) in females. The incident cancer cases increased over the 11-year study period in both species. Common cancers affecting both humans and dogs were:

Animal Sentinels and Cancer Registries: State of the Art and New Perspectives

“…In November 2019, The University of Queensland established the ACARCinom network, the first Australia-wide registry of animal cancers that will generate accessible datasets for identifying patterns and trends of cancers in animal using retrospective data from the Veterinary Laboratory Services (17). In Kenya, a collaborative work is ongoing with the human Kenya National Cancer Registry investigating cancers affecting humans and dogs in Nairobi (19).…”

“…In recent years, we Vol. 3(1), [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]2023 are witnessing to a rising revived interest in veterinary cancer registries and several initiatives have been taken for the activation and/or implementation of regional, national and international databases for animal cancer registration (9). The purpose of this review is to provide a brief overview of the current and active veterinary cancer registries, with a special focus on a novel webbased cancer registration system implemented in the Department of Veterinary Medicine and animal production of Federico II University of Naples to support the Campania Animal Cancer Regional Registry in Italy and that was designed and conceived as an integrated part of the regional Animal Cancer Registry.…”

The Global Initiative for Veterinary Cancer Surveillance (GIVCS): Report of the first meeting and future perspectives

“…In Kenya, a collaborative work is ongoing with the human Kenya National Cancer Registry, investigating cancers affecting humans and dogs in Nairobi. 14 Scientists devoted to animal cancer registration are invited to join the initiative through the website www.givcs.org…”