§ 65. Mrs. Joyce Butlerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will seek the co-operation of relatives of people who have died from cancer, in order to establish whether there is any environmental, nutritional, or other pattern which could help to establish the cause of these cancers.
§ Mrs. ThatcherThe Medical Research Council has for many years supported a wide range of epidemiological studies covering the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that may play a part in causing cancer and I am advised that the co-operation of relatives of cancer victims may in certain circumstances be of assistance in its work. Epidemiological studies should, however, have a closely defined objective to test a particular hypothesis and care must be taken to avoid the random collection of data of doubtful relevance.