Climate Change, Neurological Health and Cancer: Shared Environmental Exposures and Implications for Environmental Management

Abstract

Climate change is altering the distribution, intensity, and timing of environmental exposures relevant to neurological health and cancer, while also disrupting prevention and healthcare services. This narrative, concept-oriented review integrates evidence on extreme heat, ambient air pollution and wildfire smoke, environmental contaminants, climate-sensitive infectious disease, psychosocial stress, and health system disruption. It introduces the Climate Neuro-Cancer Axis (CNCA) as a hypothesis-generating framework for investigating potential links among climate-sensitive exposures, neural and neuroimmune processes, and cancer risk or outcomes. The review distinguishes established hazards such as the carcinogenicity of outdoor air pollution from plausible biological pathways and hypotheses that remain insufficiently tested. Current evidence supports action to reduce harmful exposures and strengthen climate-resilient health systems, but does not establish a single causal pathway linking climate change, nervous system dysfunction, and carcinogenesis, nor does it demonstrate that all relevant exposures act synergistically. The framework therefore generates testable questions rather than presenting a validated syndrome or clinical model. For environmental management, priorities include integrated exposure monitoring, pollution prevention, heat risk reduction, safe chemical management, continuity of cancer and neurological care during extreme events, and equitable surveillance. Future research should use longitudinal, multi-exposure designs, transparent methods, realistic exposure levels, and explicit evaluation of environmental and social effect modifiers. Pharmacological agents should not be used for climate-associated cancer prevention without disease-specific evidence and guideline support.