Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 73


     
     1        blood, and that is going on all the time, thankfully.
     2
     3   Q.   It is a specific creature?
     4        A.   Specialised is a better word for it.
     5
     6   Q.   Specialised?
     7        A.   And I believe you have very similar parameters in
     8        these sort of adhesive properties of cancer cells.
     9
    10   Q.   Now, if your theories were right?
    11        A.   Yes.
    12
    13   Q.   You could expect the activity of the metastasis and the
    14        appearance of secondary tumours to mirror the appearance,
    15        not depend upon, but to mirror the appearance of
    16        atheromas.  In other words, they would appear in the same
    17        sites of the body?
    18        A.   No, not necessarily.  With respect, I disagree with
    19        that.  The reason for this is that I think we are looking
    20        at two different types of genetic susceptibility.  I think
    21        that the more we understand about genetics the more we have
    22        a clear understanding that one person may be susceptible to
    23        coronary heart disease and thrombosis and another person
    24        might be more susceptible to cancer of one kind or another,
    25        and I think that you would not necessarily predict that you
    26        would get the same kind of pattern or distribution of
    27        adhesion in the cancer cell compared to the platelet.  They
    28        are different phenomenon, as you have rightly said.
    29
    30   Q.   Well, they are different phenomenon are they not?
    31        A.   Yes.
    32
    33   Q.   And it is not that the platelet are assisting the
    34        implantation, if I can call it that, of the drifting or
    35        migrant cancers?
    36        A.  No, not at all.  I mean, whether they do or not I have
    37        no evidence one way or the other, but it is not part of the
    38        thesis that I--
    39
    40   Q.   No?
    41        A.  -- postulated.
    42
    43   Q.   And it really goes this far, that there is an
    44        epidemiological, if you like, association between high
    45        peridural cholesterol levels and certain kinds of cancer?
    46        A.   Yes, there is, but there are a number of studies which
    47        have actually suggested that people who have cancer that
    48        lower blood cholesterols and this raised, at one stage, a
    49        significant scare of those of the other side of the
    50        population that were trying to get people to reduce their
    51        blood cholesterol levels.  There was an idea at one stage
    52        that made people think that a low blood cholesterol was
    53        actually a risk factor for cancer and this appeared again
    54        with the Pearson Dayton study clearly early on where one of
    55        the very first major studies in the United States of
    56        America where they intervene with reducing a high saturated
    57        fat diet and increasing the polyunsaturated content of the
    58        diet where they actually found more cancer cases in the
    59        group that had the reduced mortally from heart disease.
    60

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