Day 022 - 12 Sep 94 - Page 05

     
     1        chairing bodies or conferences or participation?
     2        A.  Well, I am, I have been Secretary of the British
     3        Stomach Cancer Group.  I have been a member of the working
     4        party of the Medical Research Council looking at
     5        colorectal cancer and also involved with the Medical
     6        Research Council looking at new forms of treatment,
     7        particularly neutron therapy, particularly in research
     8        when I was in Scotland.
     9
    10        Currently, I am a member of the United Kingdom
    11        Coordinating Committee for Cancer Research looking at
    12        colorectal cancer, also looking at anal cancer.  I have
    13        contributed to the Oxford Textbook of Oncology, which is
    14        about to be published, which is obviously a major
    15        international cancer textbook.  I have contributed to The
    16        Treatment of Cancer which is about to be published in its
    17        third edition.  I have contributed the sections on
    18        gastrointestinal cancers which involves not only the
    19        treatment of these cancers but also their causation,
    20        geographical distribution and so on.  This is an
         internationally regarded textbook on the treatment of
    22        cancer.
    23
    24   Q.   Has that been published?
    25        A.  Two editions have already been published.  It is about
    26        to go into its third edition.  So it gives some measure of
    27        the success of the textbook, I think.
    28
    29   MS. STEEL:   What percentage of all those things was involved
    30        in, was, kind of, looking up the causes of cancer as
    31        opposed to treatment?
    32        A.  I would say about a third.
    33
    34   Q.   Right.  In your opinion what are the risk factors for,
    35        say, breast and colon cancer?
    36        A.  Right.  Well, I think there is undoubtedly a very
    37        strong genetic factor because, as far as breast cancer is
    38        concerned, we can see that breast cancer can run in
    39        families.  If you have a blood relative with breast
    40        cancer, then your risk is increased by somewhere between
         1.5 and 3 fold.  Now, no direct genetic abnormality has
    42        been found to explain this but, undoubtedly, there is a
    43        genetic factor which is involved in breast cancer.
    44
    45        The same applies to colorectal cancer because there is a
    46        familial condition called polyposis coli, adenomatous
    47        polyposis coli, which is a genetically inherited
    48        abnormality and this inevitably leads to the formation of
    49        large bowel cancer.  You can also again find colon cancer
    50        running in families and, also, if you have a blood 
    51        relative with colon or rectal cancer, your risk is 
    52        increased by between two and four fold, according to the 
    53        different statistics one reads.
    54
    55   Q.   When you talk about a blood relative, are you talking
    56        about immediate family, you are not talking about great
    57        aunts and uncles?
    58        A.  No, but they also do have an influence.  If you -- one
    59        of the things when you are looking at somebody with breast
    60        cancer, one of the first things you need to know is what