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Notable One Health comparative medicine human and canine CANCER studies (from Kenya) ... INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ONE HEALTH Open access and peer reviewed journal on Human, Animal and Environmental health   Research (Published online: November 19, 2016)  http://www.onehealthjournal.org/Vol.2/8.html   8. One Health and cancer: A comparative study of human and canine cancers in Nairobi - Nyariaro Kelvin Momanyi, Rugutt Anne Korir and Riungu Erastus Mutiga International Journal of One Health, 2: 42-57       doi: 10.14202/IJOH.2016.42-57 or see http://www.onehealthjournal.org/Vol.2/8.pdf to read complete article.   Nyariaro Kelvin Momanyi: Department of Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenya; Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, UK; momanyink@gmail.com Rugutt Anne Korir: Cancer Registry Unit, Centre for Clinical Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya; annkorir@yahoo.com Riungu Erastus Mutiga: Department of Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenya; mutigar@yahoo.com   Received: 06-07-2016, Accepted: 21-10-2016, Published online: 19-11-2016   Corresponding author: Nyariaro Kelvin Momanyi, e-mail: momanyink@gmail.com Citation: Momanyi NK, Korir RA, Mutiga RE. One Health and cancer: A comparative study of human and canine cancers in Nairobi. Int J One Health 2016;2:42-57. 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: Prostate (30.4, 0.8), the respiratory tract (8.3, 1.3), lymphoma (5.6, 1.4), and liver and biliary tract (6.3, 0.5), whereas, in females, they were: Breast (44.5, 3.6), lip, oral cavity, and pharynx (8.8, 0.6), liver and biliary tract (6.5, 1.2), and lymphoma (6.0, 0.6), respectively, per 100,000. Conclusion: The commonality of some of the cancers in both humans and dogs fortifies that it may be possible to use dogs as models and sentinels in studying human cancers in Kenya and Africa. We further infer that developing joint animal human cancer registries and integrated cancer surveillance systems may lead to accelerated detection of the risks of cancer in Africa.   Footnote: The One Health Initiative team strongly supports and encourages all One Health Initiative website readers to consider following and reading INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ONE HEALTH http://www.onehealthjournal.org/. Bruce Kaplan, DVM Contents Manager/Editor One Health Initiative Website Co-Founder One Health Initiative team/website http://goo.gl/KujQkP 4748 Hamlets Grove Drive Sarasota, Florida 34235 E-mail:  bkapdvm@verizon.net Phone/fax: 941-351-5014 www.onehealthinitiative.com One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team: Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪ Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH