Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 39
1 and colon cancer, there is a positive association shown?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. In that table?
5 A. That is correct.
6
7 Q. The question here is, perhaps, a different one. Certainly,
8 there has been an association shown by a number of studies
9 of all kinds. In particular we can agree population
10 studies as far as breast is concerned, the promotion of
11 tumours in animals?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. The question here is a different one. With what certainty
15 or confidence can one state that diet is at any rate a
16 cause of most degenerative diseases?
17 A. I think --
18
19 Q. Plainly this body did not feel confident to say so?
20 A. We are looking at this concept of cause.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Pause and collect your thoughts.
23 A. I was concerned about the lady having her drink of
24 water.
25
26 MR. RAMPTON: You tell us what you think about the cause?
27 A. The understanding of cancer, which I think I described
28 in my evidence in-chief, is that the actual cause of cancer
29 is probably due to some radiation damage on the genetic
30 information, it can be due to peroxidative damage, it can
31 be due to a spontaneous mistake in the replication process
32 of the cell. That can lead to either a lethal gene, in
33 which case the cell will die, or it can lead, in some
34 unfortunate circumstances, to a cell which divests itself
35 of the recognition factors which enables the body to
36 control it. Under those circumstances, the cancer cell
37 will begin its life. It will replicate unchallenged and
38 uncontrolled by the normal mechanisms for controlling cell
39 growth within the body. That really is when one looks at
40 it at the molecular level, what we are talking about in
41 terms of cause.
42
43 When we are looking at the epidemiological evidence and the
44 experimental evidence, we are looking, not at breaking the
45 DNA with the saturated fat high diet, what we are looking
46 at is promoting the kind of biological factors that would
47 encourage the growth and development of those tumour cells
48 by suppressing the immune system and/or by encouraging the
49 breaking up of the -- sorry, the cells that break away from
50 the main body of the tumour to spread through the body and
51 to deposit themselves elsewhere and metastasise.
52
53 So when you are looking at the molecular biological reason,
54 it is quite clear that you could say that the cause of
55 cancer is likely to be chemical or physical chemical in one
56 form or another, and that may have nothing to do with the
57 diet. It may have a lot to do with the diet in the case of
58 aflatoxin or aniline diets, but on the other hand the
59 promotion of the cancer and its development to something
60 which will actually kill someone, has got a lot to do with
