Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 34
1 children had a somewhat different genetic pool from -- I do
2 not know where your other children were, but in the east
3 end of London?
4 A. Sorry, I thought I said African children in Africa
5 compared to European children in Africa. This study was
6 done in East Africa.
7
8 Q. So the genetic predispositions might be different?
9 A. I think that is probably true amongst different
10 individuals. I think the interesting thing is, and that
11 again has come out from the studies that have been done on
12 the migrant populations, that when the Africans moved or
13 were moved, to put it more bluntly, to the United States of
14 America, or when the Japanese migrated in large numbers
15 from Japan to the USA at the turn of the century, I think I
16 gave this in my evidence in-chief, that they have now grown
17 up -- sorry, they have had children and those children have
18 now grown up to have almost identical risks to heart
19 disease, breast and colon cancer as the American hosts.
20
21 I think this evidence has been well researched and what it
22 shows is that the environmental impact will override
23 whatever genetic protection there is and that those that
24 are susceptible to breast cancer or prostate cancer or
25 cancer of the colon will be the ones that will
26 unfortunately show up that impact of the environment.
27
28 Q. I noticed a moment ago, when you were commenting on his
29 Lordship's meaning, you said something about colon cancer,
30 you did not say anything about the breast cancer, did you?
31 The relationship between diet and breast cancer and
32 particularly fat and cancer is very unclear, is it not?
33 A. Well, Dr. Arnott presented a paper which was a type of
34 metanalysis of a variety of different studies on breast
35 cancer and these were basically cohort follow-up studies
36 where you follow people in the hope that some of them might
37 not get breast cancer and some will get breast cancer. And
38 the dietary studies in this framework did not show any
39 significant correlation between dietary fats and cancer
40 incidence in the population.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you say he presented a metanalysis
43 paper, what were you referring to?
44 A. It was a paper that Dr. Arnott presented in his
45 evidence.
46
47 Q. You mean he referred to it?
48 A. Yes.
49
50 Q. It is just that presenting a paper is a term of art, is it
51 not?
52 A. My apologies.
53
54 Q. If you are a scientist?
55 A. Yes, presenting a paper like that.
56
57 Q. Or you present it at a conference?
58 A. Sure, absolutely.
59
60 Q. Or for, I forget what the word is now, for verification
