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

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