Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 33
1 adult.
2
3 Q. Basically, all they can say from this study, looking at the
4 previous studies, is that, as in the conclusion, "In the
5 context of the Western lifestyle lowering the total intake
6 of fat in mid-life is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast
7 cancer substantially". That is about as much as they can
8 say from this?
9 A. That is true.
10
11 Q. Incidentally, in that table, where they adjusted the
12 relative risks in the table 2 on page 358 for these
13 variables, which included fibre intake, presumably that
14 means that they consider that the level of fibre is
15 something which affects the likelihood of getting breast
16 cancer?
17 A. No, I do not think that is the case. I think that we
18 know from evidence which we have talked about in the past
19 that fibre has been a factor which has been stated to
20 influence the development of breast and bowel cancers, and
21 so in a statistical analysis like that they try to look at
22 other factors which may possibly be influential in the
23 development of breast cancer. Because, remember, they are
24 looking only at the influence of fat or they are trying to
25 look only at the influence of fat, and therefore they try
26 to compensate for other factors which may have an
27 influence. That is the reason behind this statistical
28 analysis. They are not looking at all these other factors,
29 what they are trying to do is to exclude them from the
30 analysis so that they can look simply at fat as a risk
31 factor in the development of breast cancer.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Would it be fair to say that they are trying
34 to exclude the effect of anything which, looking at all the
35 learning on the subject, might conceivably affect the
36 results?
37 A. That is correct, yes.
38
39 Q. And eliminate those apart from fat?
40 A. Yes.
41
42 Q. They are not forming a judgment on whether it probably
43 does?
44 A. Not at all.
45
46 Q. Or there is a strong possibility. It is anything which
47 conceivably might confound the results?
48 A. Exactly, my Lord, because somebody else is looking at
49 it.
50
51 Q. I see they have "High School graduation" there, for
52 instance?
53 A. Yes. Other people reading this paper, for example, if
54 they had not corrected these, other variables might
55 say, "Well, you have not only looked at fat but what about
56 the influence of age at menarche for example?", so I think
57 they have actually had to look at all of these other
58 variables and try to get groups of patients, women, who
59 were at similar risk in terms of each of these other
60 variable factors and look at them. It is a very complex,
