Learning from plants: is it possible to make an animal organism a non-host for cancer?

Cancer is one of the most significant global health problems and a leading cause of death worldwide. Plants have a broad-spectrum mechanism of defense against pathogens called non-host resistance (NHR), when an entire plant species is resistant to all isolates of a microbial species. As nearly all basic mechanisms and components of the NHR in plants have similarities to cancer responses in vertebrates, it is theoretically possible to make an animal organism an absolute non-host for cancer by generating a total non-cancer environment, an animal analog of the NHR.

An integrative review of cancer-causing events and defense mechanisms was conducted drawing parallels with a broad-spectrum immunity against pathogens in plants, known as non-host resistance, where an entire plant species is resistant to all isolates of a microbial species.

Based on the currently available literature, the hypothesis suggests that the fundamental principles and mechanisms underlying NHR in plants might be applicable to animal organisms, potentially enabling the establishment of a hypothetical non-cancer environment characterized by absolute and durable immunity against cancer.

Within the current accumulated knowledge of the processes related to the NHR and to the body's natural and induced defenses against cancer, this hypothesis appears to be experimentally testable. The testing could be conducted through various strategies, integrating methods used for artificially inducing or engineering the NHR in plants, for example genetically modifying animals to possess traits associated with cancer resistance or enhancing their immune response via a combination of immunotherapies and trained immunity.