Proof of cancer causation and expert evidence: bringing science to the law and the law to science

This article discusses the medico-scientific and the legal views of cancer causation and how these two approaches impact on expert evidence. Cancer cause lends itself well to an exploration of the critical issues which surround its proof and the role of expert evidence in this proof. The article does not seek to identify or to resolve all the controversies or inconsistencies in the area. Rather, it sets up a basic framework for the general presentation and testing of expert medico-scientific evidence in litigation related to cancer causation. Specifically, it seeks to identify the technical questions of law and medical science regarding which medico-scientific disciplines can be relevant to proving cancer causation, and who the relevant expert witnesses to achieve this task would be. Emerging areas of cancer causation are then examined in light of this framework.