Epidemiology of cancer.

London : University of London Audio-Visual Centre, 1974.

1 encoded moving image (36.29 min.) : sound, black and white

00:36:29

University of London

Unrestricted

CC-BY-NC

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales

In English

Presented by Professor MSR Hutt, St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and Dr MJ Hill, Central Public Health Laboratories. Made for British Postgraduate Medical Federation. Made by University of London Audio-Visual Centre.

This video is one of around 310 titles, originally broadcast on Channel 7 of the ILEA closed-circuit television network, given to Wellcome Trust from the University of London Audio-Visual Centre shortly after it closed in the late 1980s. Although some of these programmes might now seem rather out-dated, they probably represent the largest and most diversified body of medical video produced in any British university at this time, and give a comprehensive and fascinating view of the state of medical and surgical research and practice in the 1970s and 1980s, thus constituting a contemporary medical-historical archive of great interest. The lectures mostly take place in a small and intimate studio setting and are often face-to-face. The lecturers use a wide variety of resources to illustrate their points, including film clips, slides, graphs, animated diagrams, charts and tables as well as 3-dimensional models and display boards with movable pieces. Some of the lecturers are telegenic while some are clearly less comfortable about being recorded; all are experts in their field and show great enthusiasm to share both the latest research and the historical context of their specialist areas.

Segment 1 Hutt introduces the lecture, pointing out that it will focus primarily on population studies, the epidemiology of cancer. He refers to slides detailing cancer rates in migrant populations compared to people of the same race in their natural environment. For instance, people in Japan have a high rate of stomach cancer, while Japanese people who have migrated to Western countries have a much lower rate. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:05:13:19 Length: 00:05:13:19

Segment 2 Hutt talks further about migration studies comparing carcinoma of the stomach in South America - people living in high mountainous areas have a much higher instance of the disease than those in lower coastal regions. Hutt believes this may largely be due to altitude changes causing atrophic gastritis, a pre-cancerous condition. Time start: 00:05:13:19 Time end: 00:10:13:00 Length: 00:04:59:06

Segment 3 Hutt discusses Burkitt's lymphoma, discussing the research that led Burkitt to locate it. He shows a map detailing where in the world the tumour most commonly occurs then explains how Burkitt identified it from epidemiological studies, proving that geography was key to its aetiology. Time start: 00:10:13:00 Time end: 00:14:35:11 Length: 00:04:22:11

Segment 4 Hutt discusses the cancer most common to the UK is cancer of the bronchus, he describes it as our 'cultural cancer.' He shows a series of studies relating to the death rate per million from cancer of the bronchus compared to figures from other countries. He cross refers this against the amount of cigarettes smoked per person per day. He then discusses cultural factors in general in various countries which are causative factors of different types of cancer. Time start: 00:14:35:11 Time end: 00:20:43:14 Length: 00:06:08:03

Segment 5 Hutt introduces Hill. Hill discusses the relationship between diet and cancer of the large bowel across different countries. He shows studies which prove that geography plays a large role in diet and subsequent likelihood to develop specific types of cancer. Time start: 00:20:43:14 Time end: 00:25:19:00 Length: 00:07:35:11

Segment 6 Hill continues to discuss the epidemiology of colon cancer. He speaks now at a more molecular level about where the cancer seems to originate in the gut, reproducing the findings of some very complex studies into intestinal bacteria. Time start: 00:25:19:00 Time end: 00:30:30:11 Length: 00:05:11:11

Segment 7 Hill continues to discuss the aetiology of colon cancer at a molecular level. He shows how these findings can be applied to population studies and statistics and that these, then, can be used to help prevent cancer from developing in the first place. Hill ends with a quote from Aldous Huxley showing that there is no such thing as original research. Time start: 00:30:30:11 Time end: 00:36:29:22 Length: 00:05:59:11