Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 30
1 cancer survival, is that many, many, many individuals have
2 not yet been diagnosed with cancer, but are carrying
3 cancer cells.
4
5 Q. You cannot, from the figures you have got, tell us how
6 many of the population of the United States that is likely
7 to be?
8 A. That is quite correct.
9
10 Q. Mr. Morris says he cannot do a sum; no-one can actually do
11 a sum, can they?
12 A. I am afraid I cannot be helpful. I am sorry.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: We are talking about tens of millions of people
15 who may have cancer and they will not know for ten or
16 twenty years. So, what I am saying is, you were saying
17 before about dietary prevention of cancer is not just in
18 terms of the initiation of the cancer, but also for those
19 that may have cancer that has not yet fully developed?
20 A. Yes. To put it simply: With regard to breast cancer,
21 every woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, for
22 eight years prior to her diagnosis she was carrying cancer
23 cells in her breast but the cluster of cancer cells were
24 too small for anyone to detect, too small for her to feel,
25 too small for her doctor to detect on examination, and too
26 small for a radiologist to see on mammography.
27
28 However, the dietary factors that influence prognosis were
29 almost certainly operative before diagnosis as well as
30 after. So for those eight to ten years prior to diagnosis
31 the dietary factors have no less importance. We would
32 presume that that is also true for something like prostate
33 cancer and colon cancer, other forms of cancer, although
34 breast cancer is the one that seems to have been looked at
35 most with regard to survival.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: If we move to the nurses' study -- was it American
38 or Canadian nurses?
39 A. That was an American study.
40
41 Q. This study -- you say it has come up before -- found a
42 clear correlation with colon cancer; is that correct?
43 A. That is correct.
44
45 Q. But it did not find a clear correlation with breast
46 cancer?
47 A. That is correct.
48
49 Q. Would you like to explain something about that?
50 A. Yes. The study has identified certain factors and
51 failed to identify others. There was a clear cut risk of
52 daily meat consumption. Women who ate beef, pork or lamb
53 daily had a relative risk of colon cancer of 2.49, meaning
54 two and a half times the risk of colon cancer compared to
55 individuals who ate those products less than once per
56 month.
57
58 The study also showed, as I mentioned earlier, that a low
59 intake of vitamin A was identified as a risk factor for
60 breast cancer. However, it did not find a link or an
