Day 017 - 25 Jul 94 - Page 44


     
     1
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you just pause a moment?  The incourt
     2        tape has broken.  We still have the master tape, but my
              own experience of that is although it is relatively
     3        efficient, the time factor involved is considerable.  It
              will only take about five or ten minutes to replace.  So
     4        I am going to rise now.
 
     5                            (Short Adjournment)
 
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Rampton, I think the tape actually broke
              after we had started, but out of circumspection perhaps it
     7        would be as well to go through what you had already done.
              They were the questions in relation to the reduction in
     8        fat intake but rise in cancer of the breast in the United
              States, and you went on to cancer of the colon and rectum.
     9
         MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  That is right, at reference 25, which is
    10        Reddy and others, including Wynder, in what looks like the
              journal of the American Cancer Society in 1978.  I think
    11        I have read the whole of the abstract.  If your Lordship
              thinks it right to do so, I will read it again.
    12
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  We have read it before in any event.
    13
         MR. RAMPTON:  The first question I asked you, Dr. Arnott, to
    14        which you just started to give a reply was whether, as at
              July 1994, the proposition that fecal bile acids have a
    15        promoting activity in carcinogenesis is still accepted in
              that unvarnished form?
    16        A.  In animal experiments, and I mentioned the criticisms
              that one has to have about animal experiments, their
    17        limitations, this morning.  It has been shown that bile
              acids when applied to tumours induced by another chemical
    18        will actually promote the development of that tumour, but
              whether that actually applies to the human situation is
    19        unknown.  It is a theory, and of course, as I said this
              morning, the concentration of the chemicals as applied in
    20        the animal situation is far greater than one would expect
              in the human situation.  It is a theory and no more than
    21        that.
 
    22   Q.   So rewritten for 1994 might one have to put that
              concluding part of the abstract in this way?  Thus
    23        diluting bile acids which may have promoting activity?
              A.  Yes.
    24
         Q.   The other question I have about this paper, given that it
    25        seemed to suggest that a diet high in fibre but
              nonetheless high in fat, was productive of a low incidence 
    26        of large bowel cancer, what conclusions might one draw, 
              not "ought to draw", might one draw from this piece of 
    27        work?
              A.  The question of fibre in the diet is a long standing
    28        one and Denis Birkett(?) was probably the first person to
              look at this particular problem when he looked at the
    29        Bantu Africans and people in this country.  He measured
              stool; he compared the low incidence of colon cancer in
    30        the Bantus compared with people in this country, and
              suggested there might be a diluting effect of the fibre

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