Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 05
1 Q. That has all happened since September 1994, has it?
2 A. Not entirely. It was a situation which was beginning
3 to happen at the time that I actually gave my last
4 evidence, which was nearly two years ago.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You said back in 1994 that this was -- and
7 they are not your words -- "the trend"?
8 A. Indeed, that is correct, my Lord. I think the trend
9 has actually continued since that time, and these two
10 studies, for example, Hill, has tried to review the world
11 literature, and many of the articles that he wrote I have
12 already quoted myself, but the other study in the New
13 England Journal of Medicine is a new study which has tried
14 to revaluate in a pooled way to try to get more statistical
15 significance of the results.
16
17 A number of studies, looking specifically at the
18 relationship between fat in the diet and breast cancer,
19 I think this is just another review which has raised
20 question marks about what the real relationship is between
21 diet and cancer.
22
23 MS. STEEL: It is fair to say, is it not, that as well as these
24 two papers that you have cited, that since you last gave
25 your evidence there have been a considerable number also
26 pointing to the suggestion that there are such causal
27 links?
28 A. Well, I am actually not sure about that. But one of
29 the things in science, if you are trying to establish a
30 relationship between A and B, is that there should be, in
31 all of these publications, a general trend to support that
32 relationship.
33
34 What we have seen in all the studies regarding diet and
35 cancer is inconsistency in the results, and that is what I
36 have tried to say all along. We do not know what the
37 relationship between diet and cancer is. It is certainly
38 not a clear cut relationship, particularly regarding cancer
39 of the breast and bowel. If we were expecting to see
40 evidence of a stronger relationship, I think all of the
41 studies would have been more consistent than they have
42 been.
43
44 Q. So you would accept that there certainly have been some
45 studies which have gone since 1994?
46 A. No.
47
48 Q. Which point towards there being a causal relationship?
49 A. No, no. What I have said is I do not know that there
50 have been these studies, but certainly what I would say is
51 that there -- and I quoted it in my original evidence --
52 have been studies which had suggested that there was a
53 relationship. What I am saying to you is that one of the
54 problems in trying to relate science to the evidence is
55 that the evidence is inconsistent and that there has not
56 been a trend all the time pointing the evidence in one
57 direction relating diet to cancer.
58
59 Q. But there certainly is not a consistent trend saying that
60 there is no connection between the two?
