Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 39
1 agree with this statement with reference to the UK: "On
2 the basis of the evidence available from the experimental
3 and epidemiological studies it appears that a reduction in
4 total fat intake may decrease the risk of developing
5 cancer." Do you agree with that statement?
6 A. Specifically with regard to breast and colorectal
7 cancer or cancer in general?
8
9 Q. Cancer in general. Perhaps answer it for both?
10 A. I think the operative word there is 'may', and I think
11 it may do but I think the honest answer is that we do not
12 know. Because, as we have already discussed this morning,
13 there are conflicting pieces of evidence with respect to
14 this such as countries like Spain and Greece where they
15 have a high fat intake, and you can argue about the
16 relative importance of olive oil and so on, but they could
17 argue, "Why should we reduce our fat intake when the
18 incidence of breast and colorectal cancer in our countries
19 is low".
20
21 Q. Right. The answer that you have given, because you said
22 specifically with regard to breast and colorectal cancer or
23 cancer in general -- which was your answer?
24 A. I am referring to cancer in general, but equally what
25 I say does apply to cancers of the breast and large bowel,
26 and that is why I say the operative word is 'may' in the
27 statement that you read out to me.
28
29 Q. Is it not correct that since you last gave your evidence
30 the World Health Organisation international expert
31 consultation made that very same statement, or at
32 least ----
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The statement which you made I have no
35 trouble with whatsoever, provided one bears in on the word
36 'may'. I do not think I have heard a witness who has
37 disagreed with that on behalf of the Plaintiffs. The same
38 applies to heart disease as well.
39
40 MS. STEEL: There are some schools of thought we went into this
41 morning that apparently think that age of graduation or
42 your education may have an effect on whether or not you get
43 breast cancer, but these authoritative bodies are not
44 making any such recommendations with regard to what age you
45 should complete your high school graduation or anything
46 like that are they?
47 A. No, basically the reason that people have looked at
48 that particular point that you are making is that there has
49 been a suggestion that, you know, social status may be
50 influential in the development of certain forms of cancer,
51 and certainly diseases in general, not necessarily only
52 cancer.
53
54 So, in the analysis such as the one we talked about this
55 morning, what they were simply trying to do was to exclude
56 those sorts of factors which have been described in other
57 studies as possibly having a bearing on the incidence of
58 cancer, and trying to exclude them from the analysis so
59 that they could look specifically at fat as the only
60 variable in terms of cancer incidence.
