Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 53
1 development from adenoma to carcinoma, or are you drawing
2 any other significance from that?
3 A. No, I am not.
4
5 MS. STEEL: OK. The third paragraph -- we have probably been
6 through this-- but where you say:
7
8 "At the present time, therefore, there is no clear advice
9 which can be given to the population in the hope of
10 reducing the incidence of colorectal cancer except perhaps
11 to ensure a good intake of fruit and vegetables which may
12 be protective."
13
14 Again, that is the current state of belief of the medical
15 scientific community?
16 A. I would say there is a general body of feeling that
17 that is the best advice that we can give to patients. The
18 apparent protective role of fruit and vegetables seems to
19 be strongest in terms of the research which has been
20 carried out.
21
22 Q. By not just to patients because the statement in your
23 statement there is about the population?
24 A. No. I would accept it is the population as a whole.
25
26 Q. Right. In the final paragraph, you talk about, "the
27 extremely strong correlation with dietary fats with the
28 exceptions of the populations of Greece and Spain"?
29 A. These are of course population studies.
30
31 Q. Yes.
32 A. Which we talked about this morning in fact.
33
34 Q. Yes, I think we dealt with that this morning.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In the investigations which have concentrated
37 on Greece and Spain, have they concentrated on physical
38 activity there as well?
39 A. No, I do not think they have actually, my Lord.
40
41 Q. One's own experience would leave one to think, maybe quite
42 wrongly, that a greater proportion of the population of
43 those countries are more active. Apart from anything else,
44 a lot do not live in towns doing sedentary work or office
45 work, but I mean that may be completely misleading tunnel
46 vision of the aspects one has seen oneself. You do not
47 know?
48 A. I do not know of anything. One would therefore need to
49 look at whether people in Athens had a higher incidence of
50 breast and bowel cancer than, say, people living ----
51
52 Q. Out in the country?
53 A. Yes.
54
55 Q. Obviously in this case the last thing I can do is draw any
56 conclusions from one's own experience rather than from what
57 is said in the witness box, but you do not know of any?
58 A. I do not know of any, my Lord.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: Your Lordship anecdotal observations do get
